NRLF 


THE    ENGLISH    HOUSE 


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c      r         •     ,- 


THE 

ENGLISH    HOUSE 

HOW  TO  JUDGE   ITS    PERIODS 
AND    STYLES 


BY 


W.   SHAW   SPARROW 

if 
AUTHOR  OF  ««OLD  ENGLAND,"  AND  COMPILER 

OF  "THE  BRITISH  HOME  OF  TO-DAY," 

♦•THE  MODERN  HOUSE,"  ETC. 


NEW   YORK 
JOHN    LANE    COMPANY 

1909 


PREFACE 

NO  book  has  yet  been  written  for  the 
lay  public  on  the  English  House 
and  its  evolution  through  the  cen- 
turies. Many  authors  speak  of  this  subject 
from  a  technical  point  of  view,  and  are  ex- 
cellent guides  for  professional  students  ;  but  it 
happens  that  architecture  depends  for  its  sup- 
port on  the  encouragement  of  laymen,  on 
the  patronage  given  to  it  by  towns  and  by 
private  enterprise  ;  hence  the  writing  of  books 
for  architects  only  cannot  do  much  good, 
since  no  appeal  is  made  to  the  real  patron 
and  paymaster,  the  nation  as  a  whole. 

In  these  circumstances  architecture  is  ne- 
glected, and  we  find  that  although  there  are 
buildings  everywhere  in  England  that  represent 
many  styles  and  a  long  history  of  social  changes, 
only  a  very  few  persons  in  a  thousand  know  an 
Ionic  column  when  they  see  it,  or  can  tell  the 
difference  between  Gothic  and  Classic  forms. 
Yet  architecture  is  the  most  necessary  of  all  the 


253419 


VI  PREFACE 

arts,  and  by  far  the  most  democratic,  since  none 
can  live  without  its  help  and  shelter. 

The  public  ought  to  be  interested,  but 
technical  writers  say  that  little  can  be  done, 
because  their  subject  is  one  which  cannot  be 
dealt  with  in  a  lively  and  popular  manner. 
Cannot  is  a  strong  word  ;  but  it  means  here  that 
the  science  of  building,  with  its  technical  terms, 
its  structural  history,  and  its  styles  and  methods, 
is  likely  to  make  a  dull  book  ;  and  that  un- 
questionably is  true,  so  far  as  the  general  reader 
is  concerned.  But  this  question  has  another 
side.  No  study  is  altogether  technical  and 
beyond  the  sympathies  of  plain  folk.  Flam- 
marion  and  Ball  have  made  astronomy  delightful 
to  a  large  public ;  Ruskin  wrote  about  art  and 
attracted  such  a  host  of  readers  that  novelists 
were  inclined  to  envy  his  success  ;  and  one  day, 
let  us  hope,  the  story  of  the  English  House 
will  be  made  as  attractive  as  "  The  Cloister  and 
the  Hearth."  There  is  no  reason  why  it  should 
not  be  that  in  the  hands  of  a  Charles  Reade. 
For  every  form  of  architecture  has  human 
interest,  representing  the  social  needs  and  ideals 
which  have  been  evolved  by  different  types  of 
society. 

In   this   book   I   have   tried   to   give    a  briet 
and  faithful  sketch  of  the  human  side  of  the 


PREFACE  vii 

English  House,  keeping  clear  of  all  matters  which 
cannot  be  made  intelligible  by  words  (a  point  to 
be  remembered,  though  often  forgotten),  dwell- 
ing as  little  as  possible  on  hard  technical  details, 
but  giving  such  definite  traits  of  style  as  any 
one  may  learn  by  heart  without  difficulty. 

Mr.  John  Cash,  Fellow  of  the  Royal  In- 
stitute of  British  Architects,  has  kindly  read 
my  proof-sheets,  and  to  him  I  am  indebted  for 
criticism  and  suggestions. 

W.  S.  S. 


CONTENTS 


PAOX 


Introduction  :  The  Subject  in  Brief  -  i 

I.  The  Dawn  of  Home  Life  14 

II.  Hall  and  House  in  Saxon  England  34 

III.  Saxon  Characteristics  of  Style  49 

IV.  Characteristics  of  Norman  Architecture         .53 
V.  Hall  and  House  in  Norman  Times  57 

VI.  Hearth,  Fireplace  and  Chimney  83 

VII.  Henry  III.  as  Patron  of  the  Home  100 

VIII.  Later    Gothic    Homes    in    Relation  to 

Ourselves  '   121 

IX.  Late  Gothic  and  Tudor  Homes  144 

X.  Halls  of  the  Poor  162 

XI.  Elizabethan  and  Jacobean  Mansions  187 

XII.  The  Renaissance  and  Ourselves  221 

XIII.  Some  Hints  tow^ards  the  Study  of  the 
Renaissance  .  252 

XIV.  Past  and  Present  Architects  275 
XV.  Architects  and  their  Clients  305 

Index  and  Glossary  321 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Facing 
page 


Interior  of  the  Hall,  Penshurst  Place,  Kent.      Fourteenth 

Century.     From  a  lithograph  by  Joseph  Nash       Frontispiece 

Charcoal  Burners  and  their  Hut.     From  a  drawing  by  James 

Orrockj  RJ.  24 

Anglo-Saxon  Mansion  40 

Anglo-Saxon  Tower  at  Earl's  Barton,  Northants  49 

Iffley  Church,  Oxfordshire,  an  Example  of  Norman  Archi- 
tecture 53 
Examples  of  Norman  Zigzag  Mouldings  56 
Manor   House,    Boothby   Pagnell,   Lincolnshire,   and    St. 
Mary's  Guild,  Lincoln.     Examples  of  Norm^an  Archi- 
tecture.    From  drawings  by  William  Twopeny                              60 
Hall  of  Oakham  Castle,  Rutlandshire.     Norman    Period, 

A.D.  II 80.     From  a  drawing  by  W.  Twopeny  64 

Details  of  the  Hall  at  Oakham  Castle  68 

Norman    Fireplaces   at   Rochester   Castle,  circa    11 30,  and 

CoNisBORouGH  Castle,  circa  1 170  72 

The  Jew's  House  at  Lincoln,  as  drawn  by  W.  Twopeny  about 

sixty  years  ago  80 

Fireplaces  from  a.d.  1270  to  a.d.  1470  84 

Drawing-room  Fireplace  at  Speke  Hall,  Lancashire.     Eliza- 
bethan Period.     From  a  drawing  by  Joseph  Nash  88 
Fireplace  at   Levens,  Westmoreland.      From  a  drawing  by 

Joseph  Nash  90 

Chimneys  from  a.d.  1250  to  a.d.  1350  94 

xi 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Chimneys  from  a.d.  1340  to  the  Sixteenth  Century 
Tudor  Chimneys  from  a.d.  1490  to  a.d.  1520 
Examples  of  Tooth-Ornament  from  a.d.  1220  to  a.d.  1260 
Aydon  Castle,  Northumberland,  a  Fortified  Manor  House 

of  the  Thirteenth  Century 
Stokesay  Castle,  Salop.    Thirteenth  Century 
Interior  of  the  Hall,  Stokesay  Castle,  Salop 
Little  Wenham  Hall,  Suffolk.     Thirteenth  Century 
Details  :  Little  Wenham  Hall,  Suffolk 
Examples  of  Wheel  Windows  in  Decorated  English  Gothic 
Exterior  of  the  Hall,  Penshurst  Place,  Kent.     Fourteenth 

Century.     (5^^  also  the  Frontispiece) 
The    Solar,    Sutton    Courtenay,    Berkshire.      Fourteenth 

Century 
Markenfield  Hall,  Yorkshire,  a.d.  13 10 
NuRSTED  Court,  Kent.     Decorated  Gothic 
Manor  House,  Great  Chalfield,  Wiltshire.     Perpendicular 

Gothic 
The  Gatehouse,   Oxburgh  Hall,  Norfolk.     Perpendicular 

Gothic 
Part  of  a  Timber  House  at  Dunster,  Somersetshire.    Tudor, 

tempus  Henry  the  Seventh 
Cowdray  House,  Sussex.     Tudor  Architecture,  tempus  Henry 

the  Eighth 
George   Inn,   Glastonbury,   Somersetshire.       Perpendicular 

Gothic,  tempus  Edward  IV. 
Hospital,    Saffron   Walden,   Essex.      Tudor    Architecture, 

tempus  Henry  the  Eighth 
Panelled  Room,  Thame  Park,  Oxfordshire,  tempus  Henry  the 

Eighth 
CoMPTON  Wyn YATES,  WARWICKSHIRE,  dating  ffom  1520 
The  Great  Hall  at  Hampton  Court,  built  by  Henry  the 

Eighth.     From  a  Lithograph  by  Joseph  Nash 
The  Hall  at  Eltham  Palace,  Kent,  dating  from  the  last  half 

of  the  Fifteenth  Century 


Facing 
page 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS         xiii 

Facing 
page 

Little  Moreton  Hall,  Cheshire  i6o 

Bramhall  Hall,  Cheshire  i6o 

Abbot's  House  at  Much  Wenlock,  Shropshire.    Perpendicular 

Gothic  164 

Timber  House  at  Weobley.     Fourteenth  Century  l68 

Cottages  at  Kingsland,  Herefordshire  172 

Cottages  at  Easebourne,  Sussex  172 

High  Street,  Weobley,  Herefordshire  176 

The  Grange,  Leominster,  Herefordshire  184 

LoNGLEAT  Hall,  Wiltshire,  attributed  to  John  of  Padua,  and 

built  between  1567  and  1579  ^88 

Staircase,  Crewe  Hall,  Cheshire,  dating  from  1636  192 

Staircase,   Burleigh,   Northants,  designed  by  John  Thorpe, 

Architect,  and  built  between   1575  and   1587.      From  a 

drawing  hy  Joseph  Nash  196 

Staircase,  Aldermaston,  Berkshire.    From  a  drawing  by  Joseph 

Nash  200 

Exterior  View  of  Burleigh,  Northants,  designed  by  John 

Thorpe,  Architect,  and  built  between    1575    and    1587. 

From  a  drawing  by  Joseph  Nash  204 

Wollaton,    Nottinghamshire,    designed    by    R.    Smithson, 

Architect,  and  built  in  1580.     From  a  drawing  by  Nash  208 

Exterior  View  of  Crewe  Hall,  Cheshire,  built  between  161 5 

and  1636  212 

The  Long  Gallery,  Hatfield  House,  dating  from  161 1.   From 

a  drawing  by  Nash  216 

Interior   of  the   Hall,  Wollaton,  Notts,  built   in    1580, 

R.  Smithson,  Architect  224 

The  Long  Gallery,  Lanhydroc,  Cornwall.     From  a  drawing 

by  Nash  232 

The  Adelphi  Terrace,  London.     Classic  houses  built  by  the 

brothers  Adam  in  the  reign  of  George  IIL  244 

Bedford  Square,  London.     Types  of  classic  houses  built  by  the     248 

brothers  Adam 


xiv         LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Facing 
pagt 


House  in  Ornamental  Plaster.     Late  Seventeenth  Century. 

From  a  drawing  by  W.  Twopeny  256 

Classic  Country  Mansions  of  the  Eighteenth  Century.  From 
Professor  Banister  Fletcher's  "  A  History  of  Architecture  " 
(B.  T.  Batsford,  publisher)  268 

Comparison  between  Greek  and  Roman  Mouldings.     From 

Professor  Banister  Fletcher's  "  A  History  of  Architecture  "     272 

The  Rectory,  Coln  Roger,  Gloucestershire,  an  example  of 
the  Cotswold  style.  From  "  Old  Cottages,  Farm-Houses, 
etc.,  in  the  Cotswold  District,"  by  E.  Guy  Dawber,  with 
photographs  by  W.  G.  Davie.  (B.  T.  Batsford,  pub- 
lisher) 288 

Yew  Tree  Farm,  near  Beckley,  Sussex.  From  "  Old  Cottages 
and  Farm-Houses  in  Kent  and  Sussex,"  by  E.  Guy 
Dawber,  with  photographs  by  W.  G.  Davie  296 

Lower  Carden  Hall,  near  Malpas,  an  example  of  Cheshire 
timberwork,  from  E.  A.  Ould's  "  Half-Timbered  Build- 
ings," with  photographs  by  J.  Parkinson.  (B.  T.  Bats- 
ford,  publisher)  304 

Kentish  Houses  at  Tonbridge.  From  "  Old  Cottages  and 
Farm-Houses  in  Kent  and  Sussex,"  with  photographs  by 
W.  G.  Davie.     (B.  T.  Batsford,  publisher)  308 

The  Manor  House,  Withington,  Gloucestershire.  A  beauti- 
ful example  of  the  Cotswold  style,  from  Mr.  Guy 
Dawber's  book  on  the  Cotswold  district,  with  photo- 
graphs by  W.  G.  Davie.     (B.  T.  Batsford,  publisher)  312 


THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

INTRODUCTION 

THE  SUBJECT  IN  BRIEF 

IN  the  most  distant  times,  as  far  back  as  we 
can  go  in  thought,  family  life  built  homes  in 
keeping  with  its  own  customs  and  ideals ; 
and  this  went  on  age  after  age.  New  ways  of  living 
were  evolved  from  the  old,  little  by  little,  with  im- 
perceptible slowness ;  and  new  homes  were  made 
to  accord  with  them,  so  that  domestic  architec- 
ture may  be  called  a  history  of  man's  life  indoors. 
Each  step  in  advance,  however  trivial  and  tenta- 
tive, was  brought  about  by  one  of  three  things, 
or  by  the  three  acting  together  and  in  unison  : 

1.  Fear,  with  a  wish  to  get  away  from 
dangers. 

2.  Comfort — an  ideal  wonderfully  slow  in  its 
development.  Refinement  and  privacy  did  not 
exist  in  early  times. 

3.  A  desire  to  protect  women,  followed  by  a 
feeling  of  some  respect  for  their  kind  genius. 

Around  these  ideals  home  life  in  England  has 


2  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

centred  and  progressed.  The  first  one  lasted  in 
a  mediasval  way  to  the  destruction  of  castles  by 
Cromwell  and  his  soldiers.  Then  the  wish  to  be 
safe  at  home  gave  greater  care  to  naval  matters. 
The  other  ideals — refinement,  comfort,  privacy, 
all  essential  to  woman's  delicate  and  adaptive 
nature — had  a  hard  struggle  till  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries,  when  the  history  of  modern 
womanhood  began,  and  with  it  the  building  of 
houses  famous  for  their  homeliness.  It  was 
inevitable  that  these  things  should  occur  at  the 
same  time,  since  the  character  of  house  architec- 
ture is  determined  by  home  customs  and  the  way 
in  which  men  and  women  live  together  with 
their  children  and  servants. 

During  the  Middle  Ages  there  was  little  in 
family  life  that  gave  women  what  they  needed 
most  of  all,  namely,  comfort  and  educated 
freedom.  Comfort  without  freedom  has  been 
given  to  the  fair  by  some  nations,  and  the  result 
has  been  always  a  narrow  civilisation,  cramped 
and  stereotyped.  Freedom  without  comfort  was 
granted  to  women  by  Teutonic  peoples;  and 
this  explains  the  coarseness  of  domestic  manners 
in  mediaeval  England,  and  the  slow  progress  in 
house  architecture.  It  was  not  till  Tudor  times 
that  daily  customs  became  friendly  to  our 
countrywomen.  The  beautiful  home  life  of 
Sir   Thomas    More,    with  the  joy   he   took   in 


THE  SUBJECT  IN  BRIEF  3 

educating  his  daughters,  marks  the  beginning  of 
a  new  era. 

Thomas  More  believed  firmly  that  education 
was  essential  to  women  as  well  as  to  men  ;  and 
this  new  idea  came  to  him  from  Italy,  where 
some  universities  had  been  open  to  girls  for 
about  two  hundred  years,  like  the  one  at 
Bologna,  where  Betisia  Gozzadini  became  a 
doctor  of  law  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

Other  nations  followed  with  interest  the  pro- 
gress of  Italian  ladies,  and  England  was  happily 
affected  in  several  ways.  Henry  IV.,  for 
example,  invited  Christine  de  Pisan  to  his  court, 
and  was  exceedingly  disappointed  that  she  could 
not  come.  Henry  VII.  commanded  Caxton 
to  translate  one  of  Christine's  books,  and  Earl 
Rivers  did  into  English  her  "Moral  Proverbs." 
By  this  means  English  ladies  were  encouraged  by 
a  woman's  success,  and  Dame  Juliana  Berners 
compiled  her  "  Boke  of  St.  Albans."  Educated 
women  became  fashionable,  so  the  ideals  of  home 
life  improved,  and  men  began  to  understand,  like 
Sir  Thomas  More,  that  womanhood  was  abased 
without  comfort  and  knowledge. 

During  the  Middle  Ages,  when  discomfort 
was  the  rule  of  life,  women  were  demoralised  by 
home  conditions  that  men  did  not  mind,  being 
occupied  during  the  day  with  business,  while 
their  wives  and   daughters  were  constantly  face 


4  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

to  face  with  the  uncleanliness  to  be  found  in  all 
houses.  No  room  was  private  ;  halls  were  bed- 
rooms for  servants  and  retainers  ;  and  in  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  at  West- 
minster, an  open  drain  flowed  through  the  royal 
halls  and  made  the  courtiers  ill.  Thorold  Rogers 
speaks  of  the  indescribable  filth  common  in 
manor-villages.  It  was  not  surprising  that 
women  were  rude  and  coarse,  and  that  home 
architecture  moved  forward  at  a  snail's  speed. 
All  this  may  be  called  the  drama  of  sex  ;  and 
unless  we  keep  it  constantly  before  our  minds 
we  cannot  understand  the  ways  in  which  houses 
were  built  by  domestic  manners  and  traditions. 

The  first  homes  were  caves,  and  these  were 
followed  by  neolithic  pennpits — round  holes 
underground,  like  those  at  Fisherton,  near  Salis- 
bury. Thence  we  pass  to  lake-dwellings,  as  at 
Ulrome,  in  Yorkshire ;  then  to  the  marsh- 
islanders  near  Glastonbury,  whose  colony  lasted 
from  about  300  B.C.  to  the  Roman  occupation  of 
England  ;  and  so  we  move  on  through  time  and 
change  till  we  come  to  our  modern  towns,  with 
their  slums  and  their  jerry-made  villas,  and  their 
great  contrasts  of  wealth  and  poverty,  and  of 
high  rents  and  bad  workmanship. 

It  is  an  education  to  follow  this  evolution  of 
pennpits  from  Neolithic  times  to  our  basement 
houses  and  tube  railways.     To  learn  how  round 


THE  SUBJECT  IN  BRIEF  5 

huts  became  square  cabins,  how  cabins  became 
halls,  and  how  these  halls  grew  into  castles, 
palaces,  mansions,  cottages,  towns — all  this,  no 
doubt,  is  a  social  history  more  intimate  and 
domestic  than  any  other.  One  day,  let  us  hope, 
it  will  be  taught  in  all  English  schools. 

At  present  it  is  known  only'  to  a  specialist 
here  and  there.  If  the  general  public  could  be 
tempted  to  read  about  this  subject  there  would 
soon  be  a  popular  movement  favourable  to  better 
houses  than  those  which  are  built  to-day  for  all 
persons  with  small  incomes.  How  many  are 
there  in  London  who  can  find  good  houses  at  a 
rent  which  they  can  afford  to  pay — a  rent  in 
keeping  with  their  salaries  ?  London  has  become 
a  nation-city  where  those  who  work  hard  for 
small  incomes  have  a  dire  struggle  to  make  both 
ends  meet.  A  small  income  is  the  average  in- 
come, so  that  most  Londoners  are  face  to  face 
with  the  same  problem — how  to  prevent  their 
livelihood  from  being  swallowed  up  by  rents, 
rates,  taxes,  and  season  tickets. 

Meantime  the  cost  of  building  rises  higher 
and  higher.  It  is  three  times  greater  than  it  was 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  though  the  wages  of  masons 
and  carpenters  are  somewhat  lower.  There  were 
no  middlemen  during  the  epochs  of  Gothic 
architecture,  while  to-day  each  building  job  has 
to  support  many  ;  and  tenants,  in  their  turn,  pay 


6  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

for  it  all  in  excessive  rents.  It  is  common  know- 
ledge that  houses  with  low  rents,  so  called,  are 
fraudulent  things,  ill-built  and  wretchedly  un- 
comfortable ;  but  people  do  not  ask  themselves 
why  these  modern  houses  are  vastly  inferior  to 
simple  old  country  cottages.  Yet  this  question 
touches  our  national  life  in  many  ways.  Bad 
homes  undermine  character.  There  is  no  surer 
test  of  civilisation  than  the  way  in  which  nations 
hand  on  their  family  traditions. 

Critics  have  much  to  say  about  good  houses 
built  for  the  well-to-do,  and  this  phase  of  modern 
architecture  is  quiet  and  beautiful.  Still,  the 
rich  are  quite  strong  enough  to  fight  their  own 
battles,  while  persons  with  narrow  means  are  at 
the  mercy  of  speculative  builders,  whose  trade  has 
ruined  many  a  fair  district.  One  need  not  hesi- 
tate to  affirm  that  our  modern  villas  and  flats  are 
very  seldom  so  well  built  as  were  the  granaries 
and  barns  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies. In  other  words,  clerks  are  not  so  well 
lodged  as  hay  and  straw  used  to  be. 

This  fact  is  worth  remembering,  because 
architecture  is  a  true  historian.  We  learn  from 
it  how  nations  love  their  religion,  how  they 
show  respect  for  law  and  justice,  how  they  give 
dignity  to  trade  and  commerce,  how  they  amuse 
themselves,  and,  again,  how  family  life  is  guarded 
among  all  classes.     The  history  of  mankind  is  to 


THE  SUBJECT  IN  BRIEF  7 

be  read  in  architecture,  which  rises  and  falls  with 
each  governing  race. 

The  Romans,  whose  art  influenced  the  whole 
of  Europe,  built  with  their  national  character, 
and  wrote  in  the  book  of  lost  empires  two  virtues, 
determination  and  stern  thoroughness.  Their 
architecture,  entirely  masculine  and  practical, 
shows  how  they  spent  themselves  in  being 
masterful  and  patient.  Still,  they  did  not  grow 
their  own  style,  but  borrowed  its  principles  from 
other  nations  and  blended  them  together.  From 
the  Greeks,  whose  architecture  was  wonderfully 
pure  in  line  and  exquisitely  proportioned,  Roman 
builders  took  columns  and  the  cornice,  and  to 
these  features  they  added  arches,  domes,  and 
vaults,  which  it  is  presumed  they  borrowed 
from  the  Etruscans.  The  result  gave  them  an 
architecture  which  purists  have  called  debased, 
bad  Greek,  but  which,  in  reality,  is  Greek  art 
alloyed  with  useful  structural  features  and  with 
Roman  power  and  practicalness. 

The  ground  idea  of  Greek  building  was 
horizontal  weight  adequately  supported  by  up- 
right columns.  It  was  a  simple  idea,  and  the 
Greeks  clung  to  it  with  unswerving  loyalty, 
developing  their  three  orders,  Doric,  Ionic, 
and  Corinthian.  Ruskin  was  inclined  to  laugh 
at  this  weight-bearing  principle,  because  a  savage 
or  a  child  could  put  up  two  blocks  of  stone  and 


8  THE  ENGLISH   HOUSE 

place  another  across  them;  but  we  must  remember 
that  this  idea  conquered  nation  after  nation  in 
the  past,  and  is  operative  to-day  in  all  parts  of 
Europe. 

It  began  by  conquering  Rome,  and  Rome 
carried  it  to  her  colonies  ;  by  this  means  it  came 
to  England  in  a.d.  43.  When  the  Saxons  and 
Angles  arrived  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century 
they  found  in  many  buildings  the  art  which 
Rome  had  adapted  from  Grecian  and  Etruscan 
ideals — an  art  furnished  with  columns,  entabla- 
tures, arches,  domes,  and  vaults. 

The  Saxons  themselves  made  their  homes 
with  wood.  Their  architecture  was  forest-born  ; 
it  consisted  of  a  cabin  or  hall,  which  served  as  a 
general  sleeping-room  as  well  as  a  chamber  for 
feasts  and  for  household  work.  This  hall,  little 
by  little,  threw  out  other  cabins — a  bower  in 
which  ladies  and  chieftains  slept,  an  oratory 
where  they  prayed  with  a  Christian  priest,  a 
kiln  for  baking  bread,  a  byre  for  cattle,  and  so 
forth  ;  but  in  the  hall  many  persons  slept,  and 
out  of  this  one  room  our  English  house  of  to-day 
was  evolved  by  more  than  a  thousand  years  of 
very  gradual  progress,  so  halting  and  so  slow  that 
each  generation  added  but  little  to  the  traditional 
house  plan. 

In  England,  then,  after  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century,    difi^erent    methods    of  building    were 


THE  SUBJECT  IN  BRIEF  9 

brought  together  ;  and  it  is  from  those  methods, 
some  Roman,  some  Anglo-Saxon,  that  nearly  all 
the  houses  we  see  to-day  have  been  grown.  If 
you  walk  down  Piccadilly,  and  notice  the  various 
styles  of  its  architecture,  you  will  find  Classic 
buildings  ;  they  are  soon  identified  by  the 
pilasters  attached  to  their  walls,  and  they 
denote  the  same  influence  which  our  Saxon 
forefathers  encountered  when  they  landed  in 
England. 

For  this  reason,  in  any  book  on  English 
houses  it  is  essential  to  speak  of  the  long  ago. 
We  must  not  pass  by  in  silence  any  great 
characteristic  that  helps  to  make  the  present  past 
and  the  past  present.  Unless  we  know  not  only 
how  things  came  to  be  what  they  are,  but  also 
w/iy^  we  cannot  take  an  intelligent  delight  in 
any  good  building  that  we  look  upon.  Hence  it 
is  necessary  to  begin  at  the  beginning,  not  in  the 
middle  of  our  subject,  so  that  we  may  follow  the 
art  of  building  from  the  dawn  of  home  life  to 
our  own  architects  and  their  clients. 

My  aim  here  is  entirely  practical ;  for  I  shall 
try  to  show,  briefly  and  with  care,  how  one  form 
of  house  developed  into  another,  and  how  each 
dominant  type  or  style  has  been  handed  down  to 
our  own  time  and  may  be  recognised  by  certain 
marked  characteristics,  like  tooth-ornament  in 
Early    English     Gothic,    and     the     ball-flower 


lo  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

ornament  in  Decorated  work   of  the  fourteenth 
century. 

To  map  out  styles  in  a  popular  manner,  under- 
lining definite  traits  easy  to  be  learnt  by  heart, 
is  a  thing  that  all  English  people  need  if  they 
wish  to  enjoy  their  country  and  its  buildings. 
It  is  by  looking  for  definite  characteristics  of 
style  that  architecture  is  first  seen  with  intelli- 
gence by  those  who  are  not  professional  students; 
and  the  pleasure  of  this  amusement  soon  becomes 
a  hobby,  a  pastime  that  educates. 

But  there  are  styles  and  styles,  and  we  must 
understand  the  difference  between  them.  A 
style  in  architecture  is  a  language,  and  may  be 
employed  in  different  ways  ;  just  as  our  English 
tongue,  in  any  period  of  its  literature,  is  infinitely 
varied  and  yet  of  its  own  time,  following  the 
conformation  of  many  minds,  but  retaining  cer- 
tain forms  and  thoughts  that  make  it  Elizabethan, 
or  Georgian,  or  Victorian,  and  so  forth.  None 
could  describe  all  the  characteristics  by  which 
any  great  period  in  English  literature  is  enriched, 
and  this  applies  also  to  the  use  made  of  styles 
in  architecture.  However  strong  tradition  may 
be,  it  does  not  prevent  a  man  of  genius  from 
forming  new  effects  with  ancient  methods  and 
forms.  We  know  that  Shakespeare  himself 
belonged  to  a  school. 

Yet    there  are   laymen   who   talk    as    though 


THE  SUBJECT  IN  BRIEF  ii 

English  houses  were  built  by  one  man  during  each 
period,  and  this  delusion  has  to  be  kept  in  mind 
by  all  writers  on  architecture.  Certain  marked 
characteristics  may  be  learnt  by  all  laymen,  but 
only  a  specialist  here  and  there  knows  the  subtle 
and  elusive  history  of  any  one  great  style. 

Finally,  there  are  seven  periods  in  the  history 
of  our  English  house,  and  all  may  be  studied 
at  first  hand.     They  run  thus  : 

1 .  Primitive :  from  pit-dwellings  to  Saxon 
timber  halls. 

2.  Roman^  with  its  influence  on  Saxon  and 
Norman  art. 

3.  Gothic:  from  late  Norman  onward  to  our 
Tudor  houses. 

4.  Transitional^  including  all  styles  that  have 
a  mixture  of  Gothic  with  Classic  forms,  like 
Elizabethan,  Jacobean,  and  the  so-called  Queen 
Anne  architecture. 

5.  Revived  Classic  of  the  Renaissance, — It  was 
Roman,  not  Greek.  Inigo  Jones,  after  long 
study  in  Italian  towns  and  a  professional  visit  to 
Copenhagen,  was  the  first  Englishman  to  work 
seriously  in   this  style  ;    and  since  his  death  in 

I  the   year    1652  Italian  Classic  has  had  English 
devotees  generation  after  generation. 

6.  Greek  Classic^  introduced  towards  the  end 
,  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  part  by  the  brothers 

Adam    (1728--92)   and    in    part    by  Stuart    and 


12  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Revett,  whose  work  on  the  "  Antiquities  of 
Athens  "  drew  attention  to  the  essential  diiFer- 
ences  in  spirit  and  form  between  Greek  and 
Roman  architecture. 

7.  Modern  Enterprise  in  many  Styles, — This 
period  is  a  history  of  the  others,  for  its  work  has 
turned  many  a  town  into  a  handbook  on  archi- 
tecture, with  chapters  jumbled  together  some- 
how, anyhow  ;  and  this  means  that  the  art  of 
building  has  become  imitative  and  eclectic. 

These  are  the  seven  periods.  Five  mark  a 
continued  evolution,  while  the  last  two  show 
the  influence  of  copying.  Through  the  Middle 
Ages  we  follow  an  arched  style  used  for  all  pur- 
poses, from  abbeys  and  village  churches  to 
barns  and  granaries.  It  changed  from  age  to 
age,  dividing  its  long  history  into  eras,  and  to 
these  eras  names  have  been  given.  Here  they 
are  : 

1.  Saxon, — From  a.d.  410,  when  the  Romans 
left  England,  to  the  year  1066* 

2.  Norman. — From  1066  to  1189,  running 
through  the  reigns  of  William  I.,  William  II., 
Henry  I.,  Stephen,  and  Henry  II. 

3.  Early  English  Gothic, — From  11 89  to  1307, 
embracing  the  reigns  of  Richard  I.,  John, 
Henry  III.,  and  Edward  I. 

4.  Decorated  English  Gothic, — From  1307  to 
1377,  the  reigns  of  Edward  II.  and  Edward  III. 


THE  SUBJECT  IN  BRIEF  13 

I    5.  Perpendicular  English  Gothic, — From   1377 
Ito  1485. 

6.  Tudor  Architecture^  a  Continuation  of  Perpen- 
dicular Gothic, — From  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. 
to  that  of  Elizabeth. 

7.  Transitional  Architecture^  EHzabethan,  Jaco- 
bean, and  other  styles,  formed  partly  of  Gothic 
features,  like  bay-windows,  mullions  and  tran- 
soms, oriels,  gables,  and  barge-boards,  all  very 
common  in  our  old  cottages,  manor-houses, 
farms,  and  water-mills.  This  rural  architecture 
springs  from  Gothic  traditions  as  a  rule.  There 
is  often  an  admixture  of  Classic  details,  but  the 
spirit  of  the  work  is  mediaeval  English. 

It  will  be  understood,  of  course,  that  the  dates 
here  given  for  the  continuation  of  each  era  are 
merely  approximate.  They  do  not  include  any 
period  of  transition  between  the  eras.  For 
example,  the  growth  of  Decorated  Gothic  into 
Perpendicular  began  many  years  before  Edward 
III.  died  ;  yet  pure  Decorated  work  was  done 
after  that  king's  death.  Still,  dates  are  a  great 
help  in  all  studies,  and  here  they  do  not  mislead 
if  we  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  they  are  only 
approximately  true. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE 


Architecture  is  the  printing  press  of  all  ages,  and 
gives  a  history  of  the  state  of  society  in  which  it  was 
erected. — Morgan. 

THIS  definition  is  a  half-thought,  not 
a  completed  truth,  because  architec- 
ture makes  the  distant  near  to  us, 
and  the  present  far  off :  it  is  alive  to-day  with 
forms  and  principles  that  belong  to  innumerable 
periods.  Some  familiar  things  are  as  old  in  the 
art  of  building  as  the  mammoth  is  in  the  science 
of  zoology  ;  and  they  are  still  young  and  useful. 
We  may  follow  them  back  to  a  time  when  man, 
with  simple  and  rude  flint  weapons,  encountered 
the  mammoth  and  the  woolly  rhinoceros  over 
there  in  the  Mendips,  and  in  other  parts  of  our 
forest  country. 

Those  giant  animals  died  out,  like  their  fierce 
contemporaries,  sabre-toothed  tigers,  bears,  lions, 
hyaenas,  and  bisons  ;  while  man  not  only  lived 
and  thrived,  but  formed  some  quite  permanent 
traditions,  heirs  to  all  future  days  and  types  of 
social  life. 

H 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       15 

So  the  aim  of  this  chapter  is  to  point  out  the 
prehistoric  features  in  architecture  that  serve  us 
helpfully  to-day.     There  are  five  of  them  : 

1 .  A  passion  for  art,  including  wall  decoration. 

2.  A  burrowing  instinct  that  reconciles  men 
to  a  life  underground. 

3.  An  instinctive  choice  of  a  round  shape  for 
rooms  :  it  is  now  approved  and  advocated  by  the 
science  of  hygiene. 

4.  A  courage  that  faced  water  and  marshlands, 
and  built  on  piles  lake-dwellings  and  marsh- 
villages.  This  formed  a  constructive  art,  which, 
after  long  ages,  would  span  rivers  with  bridges, 
raise  Peterborough  Cathedral  over  a  bog,  and 
put  Victoria  Station  where  snipe  used  to  fish  for 
tadpoles.  A  lake-dwelHng  was  a  prehistoric 
Venice. 

5.  A  preference  for  wood  and  plaster  as 
building  materials. 

These  are  all  of  primitive  origin,  so  it  is  worth 
while  to  consider  them  here. 

The  progress  of  man  during  the  Mammoth 
Period  was  determined  by  four  things :  his 
weakness,  his  knowledge  of  fire,  his  gift  of 
imitation,  and  his  hope.  The  first  of  these  was 
the  most  helpful  ;  and  providence  has  not  yet 
taken  it  away  from  human  life.  Man  knows 
to  this  day  that  his  lot  is  insecure,  that  he  may 


i6  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

fail  to  support  himself;  he  knows,  too,  that  his 
children  need  incessant  care  during  many  years, 
unlike  the  young  of  other  animate  creatures  ; 
and  all  this  acts  constantly  as  a  spur  to  thought, 
as  a  stimulus  to  inventive  pluck. 

Primitive  man,  surrounded  by  formidable 
animals,  all  hostile  to  him,  felt  his  weakness 
more  than  we  do  ours,  and  had  therefore  to  show 
in  self-defence  a  vigilant  cunning  much  fiercer 
than  we  need.  He  had  no  workhouse  as  a  last 
refuge,  you  see.  He  was  entirely  self-dependent, 
a  small  figure  among  huge  quadrupeds  and  ter- 
rific storms.  His  height  ranged  from  5  ft.  3  in. 
to  5  ft.  9  in.  ;  all  the  bone  in  his  body  weighed 
less  than  a  mammoth's  leg  ;  but  his  skull  was 
well  developed  and  his  mind  clear.  He  had  con- 
fidence in  his  brain,  and  his  hope  was  illimitable. 

To  protect  himself  he  looked  for  a  weapon, 
and  good  fortune  was  a  friend  to  him  in  this 
matter.  For  he  chose  flint,  a  stone  not  only  as 
hard  as  metal,  but  with  "  the  seeds  of  flame 
hidden  in  its  veins."  While  chipping  flint  to 
a  sharp  point  sparks  were  generated  ;  perhaps 
they  set  fire  to  some  dried  grasses  ;  it  is  certain 
that  from  them  man  learnt  how  to  make  arti- 
ficial light  and  heat ;  and  a  fire  was  his  best 
security  against  dangerous  wild  beasts. 

Comforted  by  this  guardian,  he  was  able  to 
follow  that  bent  for  imitation  which  had  come 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       17 

to  him  from  ape-like  ancestors,  and  which  he 
developed  into  art,  showing  with  his  rough  tools 
and  simple  means  quite  as  much  skill  as  was 
possible.  He  had  a  firm  touch,  his  eye  was 
quick  and  observant,  and  he  was  equally  pro- 
ficient in  sculpture,  painting,  and  engraving. 
His  passion  for  colour  decorated  the  walls  of  his 
cave  and  painted  his  own  body.  At  Dordogne, 
in  the  Caverne  de  Font-de-Gaume,  there  are 
mural  pictures  that  represent  the  bison  and 
reindeer,  and  that  belong  to  the  Mammoth 
Period.  In  Robin  Hood's  Cave,  Cresswell 
Crags,  a  piece  of  a  rib  was  found,  engraved  with 
the  head  of  a  horse,  and  showing  clearly  the 
eyes,  mouth,  and  nostrils.  Some  other  engrav- 
ings of  horses  represent  what  appears  to  be  a 
rude  form  of  harness. 

The  best  achievement  in  sculpture  is  called 
the  Venus  of  Brassempouy,  carved  from  a 
mammoth's  tooth  ;  and  much  admiration  has 
been  given  by  men  of  science  to  another  work, 
the  head  of  a  horse  from  Mas-d'Azil,  which 
has  something  akin  to  the  spirit  of  the  Elgin 
Marbles,  according  to  Dr.  William  Wright. 

But  while  this  acuteness  of  observation  was 
being  developed  into  sculpture,  painting,  and 
engraving  another  form  of  art  made  little  pro- 
gress, and  borrowed  its  principles,  seemingly, 
from  birds  and  animals.     This  was  architecture. 


i8  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Cave-men  were  like  cave-lions  and  cave-bears, 
for  they  used  a  shelter  prepared  by  Nature  ; 
pit-dwellings  at  a  later  time,  during  the  Age  of 
Polished  Stone,  put  human  architecture  on  a 
level  with  the  burrows  made  by  timid  animals  ; 
and  lake-villages  may  have  been  suggested  by 
the  lodges  and  dams  built  with  astonishing 
cleverness  by  beavers.  Even  the  use  of  mud  as 
a  plaster  for  walls  cannot  be  claimed  as  a  human 
invention,  since  it  is  found  in  the  nests  of  several 
birds.  For  example,  house  -  martins  form  a 
cement  with  loam  and  bits  of  broken  straws,  and 
allow  each  day's  work  to  dry  and  harden  before 
they  put  on  another  layer.  During  the  Middle 
Ages  mud  cottages  were  built  in  the  same  way  ; 
and  as  similar  huts  existed  in  England  during 
prehistoric  times  these  building  methods  are 
very  suggestive. 

Thus  the  marsh-village  near  Glastonbury, 
dating  from  about  the  third  century  B.C.,  had 
wattled  walls  covered  with  clay  or  mud  ;  the 
earliest  were  circular  on  plan,  like  the  Neo- 
lithic pit-dwellings  at  Fisherton,  near  Salisbury  ; 
and  this  long  retention  of  a  round  form  implies 
a  similar  conservatism  in  other  ways.  Hence  it 
is  possible  that  man  got  his  mud-plaster  from 
birds  and  his  round  hole  from  burrowing  animals. 
There  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  invented  them, 
as  he  did  sculpture,  pictures,  and  engravings. 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       19 

But  if  his  building  methods  were  copied  from 
creatures  inferior  to  himself  in  reason,  he  united 
them  together  and  formed  traditions  that  grew, 
whereas  animals  and  birds  have  ever  repeated  with 
unvarying  skill  the  same  shelter-places  and  nests. 
Human  imitation  is  like  history,  not  only  a 
collector  of  known  things,  but  an  artist  in  their 
use  and  interpretation  ;  and  you  will  find  always 
that  men  of  genius  are  unafraid  of  plagiarism, 
taking  their  own  wherever  they  find  it,  just  as 
great  rivers  swallow  up  their  tributaries.  Man's 
earliest  imitations  have  thus  a  transcendent  in- 
terest, foretelling  his  future  greatness.  Pheidias 
may  be  seen  in  the  Venus  of  Brassempouy  ;  and 
even  man's  burrowing  instinct  has  a  marvellous 
history. 

It  seems  to  have  been  unknown  during  the 
Mammoth  Period.  There  were  then  so  many 
great  animals  that  it  would  have  been  unsafe  to 
build  underground.  What  roof  could  have  been 
strong  enough  to  bear  the  weight  of  a  woolly 
rhinoceros  ?  or  what  rampart  of  stone  and  turf 
could  have  baffled  a  hungry  tiger,  eager  to  claw 
its  way  through  a  roof  of  interlaced  boughs 
coated  with  mud  ?  These  questions  may  ex- 
plain the  fact  that  in  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge  no  pit-dwelling  here  in  England  is 
referable  to  an  earlier  period  than  the  Neo- 
lithic. 


20  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

That,  to  be  sure,  is  amazingly  old  ;  but  cave- 
homes  are  older  by  far.  Still,  pitmen  are  more 
interesting  to  us  than  cave-men,  because  there  is 
still  in  human  nature  a  rabbit-like  joy  in  burrow- 
ing, as  any  collier  will  tell  you,  for  miners  like  to 
show  off  their  underground  vanity,  their  pit  pride. 
Even  in  London  flats — the  most  recent  develop- 
ment of  our  house  architecture — there  are  base- 
ments where  porters  live  an  obscure  existence, 
with  an  electric  light  burning  all  day  long.  Some 
architects,  also,  following  an  idea  suggested  by 
the  late  E.  M.  Barry,  R.A.,  would  gladly  build 
kitchens  and  bathrooms  under  the  gardens  in 
London  squares,  lighting  them  through  a  sky- 
light in  the  centre.  We  are  still  Neolithic  in 
some  ways,  evidently. 

Pit-dwellings  lasted  among  the  Germans  into 
historic  times.  Tacitus  expressly  states  that  the 
German  people  dug  out  subterranean  caves,  and 
piled  over  them  great  heaps  of  dung,  as  a  shelter 
from  winter  and  as  a  storage  for  the  year's 
produce.  Such  places  lessened  the  rigour  of 
cold  and  enabled  families  to  hide  themselves 
from  human  foes.  Among  the  Irish,  according 
to  Professor  Sullivan,  pennpits  were  kept  in  use 
at  a  time  when  their  knowledge  of  lime  would 
have  enabled  them  to  build  better  houses.  This 
ancient  people  made  rooms  underground,  from 
nine  to  ten  feet  long,  and  from  three  to  four  feet 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       21 

high  and  wide  ;  narrow  passages  linked  these 
chambers  together  ;  and  other  tunnels,  barely 
sufficient  to  allow  a  man  to  creep  in  on  his 
stomach,  went  up  through  the  soil  into  a  camp 
enclosed  by  a  mound  or  rampart.  Does  not  this 
remind  you  of  coal-mines  with  their  stables,  and 
of  tube  railways  with  their  stations  ? 

Some  pit-dwellings  had  two  stories,  the  lower 
one  serving  as  a  granary ;  these  belonged  to 
a  late  time.  The  round  pits  at  Fisherton  are 
Neolithic,  and  carried  down  through  chalk  to  a 
depth  of  from  seven  to  ten  feet ;  their  roofs  were 
interlaced  boughs  made  weather-tight  with  clay  ; 
and  they  were  entered  by  tunnels  cut  through 
the  chalk,  sloping  downwards  to  the  floor. 

One  cannot  believe  that  pitmen  used  fire  under- 
ground. It  would  have  been  very  troublesome. 
To  put  a  hole  in  the  thatch  would  weaken  the 
roof  as  a  defence,  and  smoke  rising  through  the 
hole  would  attract  wolves,  even  although  a  pit- 
dwelling  were  defended  by  a  wall  of  stones  or  a 
stockage  of  timber,  like  the  marsh-village  near 
Glastonbury.  For  these  reasons  warmth  may  have 
been  obtained  by  avoiding  all  waste  of  animal  heat. 

Finally,  the  evolution  of  these  underground 
homes  was  towards  the  sun's  light.  That  is,  they 
became  shallower,  and  each  decrease  of  depth 
made  it  necessary  to  build  higher  walls  above 
ground,  so  as  to  maintain  the  accustomed  rooni- 


22  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

space.  This  progress  towards  light  and  air  took 
place  in  England  ;  and  we  are  still  reminded  of  it 
when  we  see  old  cottages  with  their  kitchens  two 
or  three  feet  lower  than  the  soil  around  them. 
Similar  houses  were  common  in  Italy  as  long  ago 
as  the  fifth  century  b.c.  It  is  thus  that  home 
architecture  makes  our  own  time  contemporary 
with  all  past  epochs. 

Circular  houses  underground  were  followed  by 
round  huts  on  the  surface,  and  of  this  type  we 
have  many  examples.  One — and  it  seems  to  be 
the  oldest  of  all — is  employed  to  this  day  by  char- 
coal-burners. If  you  study  the  illustration  (p.  24) 
you  will  see  at  once  that  no  hut  could  be  less  intelli-  j 
gent  when  considered  as  architecture.  It  is  the  ■ 
letter  A  in  the  rudiments  of  building  ;  it  cannot 
be  compared  for  a  moment  with  the  constructive 
artistry  of  a  beaver's  dam,  bending  to  meet  a 
constant  pressure  of  water  that  becomes  formid- 
able when  a  mild  river  floods  into  spate.  A 
charcoal-burner's  hut  has  three  characteristics  : 

1.  It  is  cone-shaped,  and  its  timber  frame 
covered  with  turf  slants  upwards  till  it  meets  at 
the  top  in  a  point,  looking  like  a  clown's  cap  in 
architecture. 

2.  It  belongs  to  the  period  of  round  primeval 
houses. 

3.  It  has  no  hearth  inside,  so  cooking 
takes    place    out    of    doors,    as    though    fierce 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       23 

animals  had  still  to  be  kept  at  bay  by  the  glare 
of  fire. 

These  points  are  all  interesting,  for  a  cone  is  a 
much  more  primitive  shape  in  architecture  than 
a  circle  having  upright  walls  and  a  pointed 
coverlid  resting  on  roof  timbers.  Here  there  is 
some  constructive  thought  and  ability,  while  there 
is  nothing  of  the  kind  in  a  few  sticks  tied  together 
at  their  tops,  then  set  upright  as  a  cone,  and 
covered  with  sods.  An  Irish  round-house  was 
far  superior,  though  rude  and  primitive.  It  had 
upright  walls  forming  two  circles,  between  which 
was  an  annular  space  about  twelve  inches  wide 
filled  with  clay  ;  and  this  solid  wall,  outside  and 
inside,  was  made  picturesque  by  a  wattled  basketry 
interlaced  from  prop  to  prop.  Thus  a  cylinder 
was  firmly  built  ;  over  it  a  conical  roof  was  put, 
and  thatched  with  rushes  ;  a  wood  fire  burned 
on  a  central  hearth,  and  its  carbon  smoke  eddied 
through  the  doorway,  or  curled  up  through  a 
hole  in  the  thatch. 

This  type  of  Irish  round-house  has  evidently 
many  advantages  over  our  charcoal-burner's  hut, 
and  this  applies  also  to  the  English  marsh-village 
at  Glastonbury,  the  remains  of  which  are  about 
two  thousand  years  old  in  their  most  ancient 
parts.  Here  is  a  collection  of  round  and  oval 
cabins,  from  sixty  to  seventy  in  number  ;  their 
foundation    is   a  platform   solidly  put   together, 


24  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

formed  with  brushwood  fascines  and  logs  ;  these 
are  embedded  in  peat  and  covered  with  large 
beams,  laid  side  by  side  and  a  foot  deep  ;  and  this 
colony  of  huts,  thus  islanded  above  a  marsh,  has 
around  it  the  remnants  of  a  thick-set  palisade 
enclosing  about  three  and  a  half  acres.  As  to  the 
building  methods,  when  a  hut  was  eighteen  feet 
in  diameter  about  sixty  posts  were  set  upright 
in  the  platform,  then  wattled  and  plastered  with 
clay ;  a  stone  hearth  was  put  at  a  distance  from 
these  fragile  walls,  so  that  sparks  might  not  reach 
their  timbers  ;  a  log  marked  the  threshold  ;  and 
a  rough  doorstep  was  made  with  slabs  of  lias 
stone.  Such  was  the  architectural  work  done 
in  England  during  the  three  hundred  years  that 
preceded  the  Roman  Conquest. 

As  this  work  is  more  advanced  than  a  charcoal- 
burner's  hut,  and  as  the  marsh-village  at  Glaston- 
bury is  a  descendant  of  the  lake-dwellings  that 
belong  to  the  Bronze  Age,  there  is  much  here  to 
set  thought  astir.  Charcoal-burning  may  be  as 
old  as  the  first  pottery  baked  by  a  fire,  not  by  the 
sun  ;  or  as  old  as  the  first  bronze  weapons.  But 
of  one  thing  we  may  be  quite  certain  :  a  char- 
coal-burner's hut  is  amazingly  primitive  in  type 
and  structure,  and  shows  how  in  isolated  con- 
ditions of  life,  when  a  trade  does  not  admit 
of  much  improvement,  men  hand  on  their 
simple    customs    with     the    same    conservative 


5  e  r    c     '   (       c     c  ; 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       25 

spirit  so  remarkable  among  birds,  animals,  and 
insects. 

We  have  now  seen  that  two  Neolithic  cha- 
racteristics have  come  down  to  our  own  time  : 
a  burrowing  instinct  and  a  round  plan.  Is  there 
\  anything  to  explain  this  choice  and  retention  of 
a  circular  form  ? 

At  once  a  good  many  facts  bid  for  attention. 
Item,  we  find  in  ourselves  spontaneous  habits  that 
suggest  an  explanation.  A  man  learns  with 
:  difficulty  to  hit  out  straight  from  his  shoulder, 
for  his  natural  blow  sweeps  in  a  semicircle,  as 
women  bowl  at  cricket.  Again,  the  earliest 
attempts  at  drawing  made  by  a  child  are  unsteady 
rounds  and  ovals  ;  and  the  most  difficult  thing  to 
be  learnt  in  art  is  to  square  one's  touch.  All 
students  give  far  too  much  emphasis  to  the  in- 
numerable rounded  forms  in  nature.  "  Your 
I  work  has  no  character,"  a  teacher  says  ;  "  it  is 
too  round  :  square  your  touch  a  little." 

We  know,  too,  that  a  man's  natural  walk  is 
not  straight  ahead.  In  the  street  you  and  your 
companion  bump  against  each  other  ;  on  a 
moor,  if  you  are  thinking  or  talking,  an  arched 
bend  is  made  by  your  footsteps  ;  so  that 
our  natural  movements  and  gestures  are  not 
direct,  but  curved,  like  Nature's  own  lines  and 
forms. 

For  Nature  detests  a  rectangle,  and  works  in 


26  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  round.  Even  when  she  grows  a  long  fruit, 
like  a  banana,  it  is  often  circular  in  section. 
Her  favourite  shapes  are  cones,  ovals,  and  circles  ; 
and  with  these  she  makes  fruits,  flowers,  and 
birds'-nests,  the  trunks  of  trees,  and  the  skulls  of 
birds  and  animals.  Our  round  earth  is  warmed 
by  a  round  sun,  and  Shakespeare's  "  visiting 
moon "  is  not  a  crescent,  but  a  full  circle. 
Altogether,  then,  there  is  nothing  unusual  in  the 
fact  that  primitive  man  loved  circular  forms. 
Instinct  guided  him  when  he  made  his  home 
round,  just  as  it  taught  birds  to  build  round 
nests. 

Yet  he  was  not  invariably  loyal  to  his  pre- 
ference. For  example,  he  built  two  kinds  of 
funeral  mound,  circular  and  long.  The  round 
barrows  in  England  are  more  numerous  than  the 
others,  and  more  equally  distributed  over  the 
country.  Some  are  Neolithic  ;  the  others  belong 
to  later  times,  the  Bronze  and  Iron  Ages.  Long 
barrows  are  relatively  few  in  number,  and 
restricted  in  their  area.  A  hundred  and  four 
exist  in  England,  divided  between  the  coun- 
ties of  Wilts,  Gloucester,  Dorset,  and  York. 
Gloucestershire  and  Wilts  have  seventy-six. 
These  long  barrows  appear  to  be  Neolithic,  no 
bronze  having  been  found  in  them  ;  and  they 
show  that  some  human  minds  had  begun  to 
think  about  shapes  having  greater  length  than 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       27 

breadth.  Indeed,  there  are  long  barrows  with 
chambers  ;  that  is,  they  contain  a  number  of 
stone  cists,  which  open  into  a  long  gallery  or 
passage  ;  and  this  passage  has  an  entrance  un- 
covered by  earth,  and  with  a  very  big  lintel 
supported  by  two  jambs.  A  chambered  barrow 
jmay  represent  one  type  of  dwelling  ;  it  has 
certainly  much  in  common  with  the  beehive 
huts  of  Ireland,  which  were  once  inhabited,  and 
'where  we  may  find  a  gradual  transition  from  a 
round  to  a  rectangular  form. 

In  the  county  of  Kerry,  on  the  island  of 
Skellig  Michael,  there  are  six  beehive  houses 
built  of  dry  rubble  masonry  ;  their  cells  are 
rectangular  inside,  but  round  or  oval  outside  ; 
except  in  one  example,  where  the  exterior  is 
squared  at  the  base.  Their  roofs  are  domed, 
and  consist  of  horizontal  courses  that  overlap  ; 
their  doors  have  inclined  jambs  and  flat  lintels 
or  heads,  and  small  holes,  rectangular  in  shape, 
indicate  how  smoke  got  away.  Every  detail 
here  is  full  of  interest.  Those  inclined  jambs 
prove  that  Ireland  at  one  time  had  cone-shaped 
huts  with  slanting  walls,  of  a  piece  with  our 
charcoal-burner's  ;  and  what  could  be  more 
suggestive  than  the  contrast  between  the 
rectangular  cells  in  round  and  oval  buildings  ? 

A  similar  transition  took  place  in  the  marsh- 
village  near  Glastonbury,  where  oval  huts  stood 


28  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

side  by  side  with  round  cabins.  Nor  is  this 
all.  "  Amongst  the  wood  and  debris  underlying 
the  clay  of  a  dwelling  mound  three  hurdles  were 
uncovered  ;  the  more  complete  one  measured 
6  ft.  3  in.  high  by  lo  ft.  6  in.  wide,  with  an 
average  space  between  the  upright  posts  of  five 
inches.  In  close  proximity  to  the  hurdles  was 
a  beam  of  oak,  having  small  mortise  holes  along 
one  side  parallel  to  the  edge  ;  the  distance  be- 
tween the  holes  exactly  tallied  with  the  space 
between  the  hurdle-posts.  From  the  way  the 
under  surface  of  the  beam  was  cut  and  notched 
it  was  evident  that  it  had  been  placed  at  right 
angles  to  a  similar  piece  of  timber.  We  have 
here  distinct  proof  that  some  of  the  dwellings 
were  rectangular,  and  that  the  walls  were  about 
six  feet  in  height."  This  decision  was  made 
known  to  the  British  Association  in  1896,  and 
it  shows  the  evolution  from  circular  to  squared 
houses. 

Attempts  to  build  in  oblongs  may  thus  be 
noted,  here  and  there,  from  very  remote  days, 
as  in  Neolithic  chambered  barrows,  or  in  the 
long  rooms  underground  made  by  the  ancient 
Irish,  onward  to  the  marsh-folk  at  Glastonbury. 
Yet  this  transition  from  the  round  was  so  halting 
that  no  idea  of  its  slow  progress  can  be  given  in 
words.  Even  during  Caesar's  time  a  preference 
for  round  huts  was  shown  by  British  tribesmen, 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       29 

as  by  the  Gauls,  though  squared  cabins  were  also 
put  up  ;  and  if  you  ask  me  why  men  ever  wished 
to  give  up  their  circular  homes  for  a  shape  not  to 
be  found  in  Nature  I  can  only  say  that  a  circular 
form  is  very  difficult  to  roof  when  its  diameter 
exceeds  from  twelve  to  eighteen  feet.  It  then 
needs  more  scientific  knowledge  than  primitive 
races  can  learn  from  their  simple  building  methods. 
Many  hundreds  of  years  later,  during  the  great 
periods  of  Gothic  architecture,  roofing  problems 
were  very  hard  nuts  to  crack.  For  example, 
many  castles  were  found  to  be  roofless  during  the 
reigns  of  Henry  III.  and  Edward  I.  With  these 
facts  in  mind,  I  attribute  the  adoption  of  oblong 
houses  to  three  things  : 

1.  They  were  easier  to  roof  than  round  houses 
of  an  equal  area. 

2.  They  enabled  a  chief  to  sit  at  a  greater 
distance  from  his  servants  and  dependents. 

3.  They  were  thus  more  favourable  to  that 
communal  life  in  halls  which  Angles  and  Saxons 
brought  with  them  to  England. 

In  other  words,  a  round  hut  implies  one  family, 
as  in  that  of  a  charcoal-burner  ;  while  a  squared 
hall  may  be  extended  to  any  reasonable  length, 
and  is  therefore  friendly  to  a  primitive  royal 
life,  with  courtiers  and  armed  retainers.  This 
.  may  be  illustrated  by  the  way  in  which 
wooden    houses    were    built    during    medieval 


30  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

times,  with  methods  inherited  from  the  Anglo- 
Saxons. 

Have  you  ever  heard  of  gavels  or  gavelforks, 
known  also  as  crucks  ?  They  were  bent  trees, 
and  with  them  arched  gable-ends  were  con- 
structed. Two  pairs  of  gavels  were  required  for 
a  simple  cottage  ;  each  pair  formed  a  great  strong 
arch  ;  and  the  two  arches  were  joined  together 
by  means  of  a  ridge-tree  fastened  securely  from 
apex  to  apex.  Thus  a  frame  was  made,  to  be 
finished  with  tie-beams,  rafters,  side-posts,  and 
so  forth.  All  this  work  was  done  before  a  frame 
was  set  up  on  its  feet ;  and  a  prodigious  amount 
of  beer  was  drunk  by  those  who  raised  it  into 
position  on  its  site. 

The  distance  between  the  gavels — that  is,  from 
gable  to  gable — was  called  a  bay^  and  a  bay  was 
sixteen  feet  long.  Large  houses  were  built  in 
several  bays,  and  this  applies  also  to  barns  and 
shippons.  It  is  always  useful  to  measure  old 
cottages  and  farm-buildings,  so  as  to  ascertain 
whether  their  length  is  a  multiple  of  sixteen  or 
of  eight — that  is,  whether  they  contain  a  half- 
bay.  For  example,  a  cottage  twenty-four  feet 
long  is  a  bay  and  a  half. 

A  bay-window — one  of  the  most  delightful 
features  that  Gothic  art  invented  for  us — used  to 
be  a  real  bay,  large  as  a  room  ;  and  this  may  be 
seen  at  Haddon  Hall,  in  the  Long  Gallery,  where 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       31 

projecting  windows  measure  1 5  ft.  by  12  ft.  It 
would  be  easy  to  say  a  great  deal  more  about 
bays,  but  here  the  main  point  is  their  early  use 
in  the  construction  of  rectangular  houses. 

But  although  round  houses  went  out  of  fashion 
everywhere  in  England,  except  among  charcoal- 
burners,  architecture  harked  back,  again  and 
again,  to  circular  forms,  as  in  domes,  in  wheel- 
windows,  and  in  round  towers,  so  that  the  tradi- 
tion has  never  been  lost.  Round  and  oval  rooms 
are  common  enough  in  modern  French  houses 
and  flats,  just  as  they  were  fairly  common  in 
English  work  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  and 
now  we  are  told  by  men  of  science  that  our 
squared  rooms  are  quite  wrong,  and  that  we 
must  go  back  to  ovals  and  circles.  The  modern 
science  of  hygiene  detests  a  rectangle,  following 
Dame  Nature's  example. 

"  Square  rooms  are  bad,''  the  argument  runs  ; 
"  their  corners  are  dust-bins,  and  dust  is  a  collec- 
tion of  disease  germs :  it  keeps  a  house  dangerously 
full  of  microbes.  Furniture  is  bad  :  it  harbours 
dust,  it  occupies  too  much  air-space,  and  air- 
space means  life  and  health.  Put  as  much 
furniture  as  you  can  in  the  thickness  of  walls  ; 
let  it  lie  flush  with  their  surface  ;  and  have 
shallow  mouldings  easy  to  be  cleaned,  even  by 
present-day  servants.  Carpets,  curtains,  uphol- 
stery, are  scavengers,  for  they  gather  dust   and 


32  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

germs,  and  these  are  scattered  into  the  air  by- 
draughts." 

In  these  criticisms  a  new  architecture  lies  in 
embryo — new  and  yet  old,  modern  and  yet 
primeval.  We  are  asked  to  return  to  rounded 
shapes  and  a  simpler  home  life.  At  the  present 
time  it  is  much  to  ask.  Everybody  is  habituated 
to  square  rooms  and  rectangular  houses,  and 
everybody  hates  a  revolution  in  long-accepted 
customs.  Custom  is  reason  fast  asleep  ;  it  takes 
the  place  of  thought  in  all  popular  habits  of  life, 
and  science  will  not  rouse  it  up  without  infinite 
patience. 

Still,  a  reversion  to  rounded  forms  in  architec- 
ture will  gain  strength  little  by  little,  and  a  city 
in  the  round  might  be  made  infinitely  varied  and 
charming.  Might  it  not  be  tested  in  a  Garden 
Village  ? 

Last  of  all,  you  will  see  now  that  the  title 
of  this  chapter,  "  The  Dawn  of  Home  Life,'' 
has  two  meanings :  one  carries  our  thoughts 
back  to  prehistoric  times,  and  another  speaks 
of  a  new  Renaissance.  Architectural  styles 
were  not  much  affected  in  the  past  by  the 
science  of  health.  Nations,  indeed,  encountered 
plagues,  leprosy,  fevers,  and  small-pox  rather  than 
treat  sanitary  questions  in  a  spirit  of  common 
sense.  Their  life  was  a  kind  of  suicide,  from 
which   a   few  persons  escaped,  living  by  good 


THE  DAWN  OF  HOME  LIFE       33 

luck  to  threescore  years  and  ten.  All  this  has 
been  improved  by  modern  sanitation.  Our  towns 
have  perfect  drains,  their  water-supply  is  good, 
and  they  have  a  minimum  size  for  rooms  ;  but 
science  wants  to  achieve  more  than  that.  To 
conquer  dust  and  its  household  dangers  will  be 
her  next  campaign  ;  and  she  will  succeed  after 
much  popular  opposition. 


WORKS  OF  REFERENCE 

"  The  Prehistoric  and  Early  Historic  Inhabitants  of 
England."  Lectures  by  William  Wright,  M.B.,  D.Sc, 
F.R.C.S.,  F.S.A.     1907. 

O'Curry's  "  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Irish," 
with  an  Introduction  by  Professor  Sullivan.     1873. 

Anderson's  "  Scotland  in  Early  Christian  Times."      1881. 

"  Haus  und  Halle,"  by  Dr.  Konrad  Lange.     1885. 

"The  British  Lake  Village"  (Taunton,  1895),  by  Boyd 
Dawkins. 

Clodd,  "The  Story  of  Primitive  Man." 

Taylor's  "  The  Origin  of  the  Aryans." 

A.  BuUeid,  On  the  Marsh  Village  near  Glastonbury. 


CHAPTER  II 
HALL  AND  HOUSE  IN  SAXON  ENGLAND 

DURING  the  fifth  century  Saxon  archi- 
tecture came  in  touch  with  the  Roman 
art  that  remained  in  England.  Anglo- 
Saxons  built  with  timber  and  daub,  while  the 
Romans  used  stone  and  thin  bricks  resembling 
tiles.  These  different  methods  began  to  affect 
each  other,  and  their  history  through  succeeding 
centuries  may  be  seen  to-day  in  English  country 
districts.  Remains  of  Roman  building  stand 
side  by  side  with  ancient  stone  churches  or 
with  timber-framed  cottages ;  and  although  the 
earliest  English  brickwork  is  said  to  be  not  older 
than  Little  Wenham  Hall,  Suffolk,  dating  from 
1260,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  earlier 
name  for  brick  was  tigel,  or  tile,  so  a  tile-maker 
may  have  been  a  brick-maker  also.  Some  Anglo- 
Saxon  drawings  represent  walls  which  may  be 
either  of  brick  or  stone  ;  some  Norman  buildings 
have  tiles  that  recall  to  mind  the  narrow, 
thin  bricks  used  by  the  Romans  ;  and  so  it  is 
quite  possible  that  the  Roman  art  of  brick- 
making    never    died    out    in    England.      Per- 

34 


THE  SAXON  HALL  AND  HOUSE    35 

manence  of  tradition  is,  indeed,  usual  in  archi- 
tecture. 

The  Roman  work  most  likely  to  influence 
Anglo-Saxons  was  to  be  found  in  stately  and 
beautiful  villas,  remnants  of  which  still  exist. 
Sometimes  their  dining-hall,  or  triclinium^  had 
two  circular  compartments,  with  tesselated  pave- 
ments, as  at  Bignor,  in  Sussex,  where  the  tiles 
represent  Ganymede  carried  off  by  the  eagle,  and 
figures  of  graceful  nymphs  dancing  around  a 
stone  cistern,  probably  a  fountain.  On  another 
pavement  at  Bignor  is  a  row  of  figures  showing 
how  Cupids  may  fight  gallantly  with  gladiators. 
All  this  tesselated  work  is  framed  with  a  border- 
ing, and  the  border  patterns  are  familiar  because 
they  have  been  copied  by  modern  tradesmen, 
and  are  met  with  on  linoleum-covered  floors. 

A  Roman  villa  had  a  good  inner  court  or 
quadrangle,  into  which  rooms  looked,  so  as  to 
get  away  from  the  sun — a  natural  thing  under 
hot  Italian  skies,  but  unwise  when  a  Northern 
climate  had  to  be  warmed  indoors.  Around  the 
quadrangle  was  a  cloister,  as  at  Lydney,  Wood- 
chester,  and  Chedworth,  so  that  our  English  sun 
had  other  unnecessary  compliments  paid  to  its 
fitful  geniality.  Yet  the  Roman  house  plan  was 
copied  by  monks  and  repeated  in  their  mediaeval 
buildings. 

In  Cornwall,  again,  as  Richard  Carew  pointed 


36  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

out  (a.d.  1602)5  it  was  a  traditional  custom  to 
light  rooms  from  an  internal  court.  Cornish 
houses  had  low  sites  ;  their  walls  were  thick, 
and  their  stones  put  together  with  a  mortar  of 
lime  and  sand  ;  and  their  windows  were  arched 
and  little.  There  is  much  here  that  speaks  of 
Romanesque  methods.  Low  sites  were  not 
favourable  in  our  climate,  and  rooms  facing  in- 
wards upon  a  court  were  certainly  of  Italian 
origin. 

Still,  it  is  always  pleasant  to  think  of  a  Roman 
atrium  with  chambers  built  around  it,  for  an 
atrium  seems  to  have  been  to  Roman  family  life 
what  a  hall  was  to  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  their 
descendants,  the  place  where  all  home  interests 
were  united  in  a  sort  of  communal  way.  A< 
first  it  was  used  for  cooking  as  well  as  for  meals ; 
clients  and  patrons  did  business  there  ;  and  each 
good  atrium  was  adorned  with  works  of  art 
statues,  wall-paintings,  and  images  of  the  owner' 
ancestors.  In  later  times  an  atrium  seems  ta 
have  been  divided  into  different  parts,  separatee 
from  one  another  by  curtains  or  veils  ;  and  thii 
means  of  securing  privacy  was  carried  on  b] 
the  Normans. 

Near  the  gate  was  a  hearth,  and  a  wood  fin 
burnt  on  it  always,  under  the  charge  of  a  janitor  ; 
and  around  it  images  of  the  lares  were  placed 
There   were    no    chimneys    to    convey    smok 


THE  SAXON  HALL  AND   HOUSE    37 

through  the  walls,  so  an  atrium  became  sooty  ; 

December  was  called  Fumosus^  from  the  use   of 

fires  in  that  month,  and  images  were  known  as 

fumosce.       So    the    Anglo-Saxons    had    little    to 

:  learn  from   Romans  in  the   use   of  wood   fires. 

They  may  have  borrowed  the  Roman  practice 

of  anointing  well-dried  sticks  with  the  lees  of  oil, 

'  to  prevent  smoke.     But  on  this  point  I  can  find 

no  evidence. 

To  warm  rooms  has  ever  been  a  difficult 
problem.  In  the  time  of  Seneca,  who  died  in 
A.D.  65,  heat  was  circulated  through  a  house 
from  a  furnace  below  by  means  of  tubes  or 
passages  made  in  the  walls  ;  and  this  was  in- 
finitely better  than  those  hand-stoves  in  which 
embers  were  carried  to  Roman  apartments  at  an 
earlier  period.  Portable  stoves  were  used  in 
England  during  the  Middle  Ages,  while  the 
better  Roman  method  was  not  copied. 

There  is  yet  one  other  thing  of  interest  in 
connection  with  a  Roman  house.  A  rain-cistern, 
or  impluvium^  was  put  in  the  centre  of  the  atrium ; 
as  a  rule  it  was  uncovered,  but  at  times  it  had 
an  arched  roof  called  a  testudo.  Old  Vitruvius 
says  that  it  ought  not  to  be  more  than  a  third  part 
of  an  atrium's  breadth,  nor  less  than  a  fourth 
part.  From  this  we  gather  that  this  Roman  hall 
or  atrium  was  sometimes  entirely  roofed,  even 
the  space  over  the  rain-cistern  being  covered. 


38  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

This,  we^-may  be  sure,  would  be  the  case  in 
England,  where  an  open  roof  could  not  but  be 
inconvenient.  The  Anglo-Saxons  must  have 
found  many  Roman  halls  with  well-built  roofs, 
and  there  is  evidence  to  show  that  their  own 
building  methods,  formed  by  a  traditional  use  of 
timber,  were  influenced,  at  least  to  some  extent, 
by  the  Roman  art  of  masonry.  In  the  seventh 
century,  for  example,  churches  of  stone  were 
founded  by  Paulinus  at  York  and  at  Lincoln,  the 
first  in  627,  and  the  second  a  year  later.  In 
another  church,  built  at  Glastonbury,  of  timber, 
Paulinus  employed  lead  for  the  roof,  a  fact  of 
great  interest.  At  a  later  date,  in  or  about  685, 
a  wooden  church  at  Lindisfarne,  now  known  as 
Holy  Island,  was  covered  all  over  with  lead,  both 
roof  and  walls.  Yet  writers  on  architecture  are 
fond  of  asserting  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  were 
entirely  loyal  to  their  own  methods,  building 
their  halls  with  wood,  and  thatching  them  with 
reeds,  or  covering  them  with  shingles.  Consider, 
for  instance,  this  passage  by  Mr.  J.  J.  Stevenson  : 

"  Among  all  the  nations  of  Northern  race  the 
dwelling  of  the  chief  was  a  single  great  hall, 
built  of  wood,  with  a  separate  apartment  for  the 
women.  With  the  Norsemen,  as  we  know  from 
their  Sagas,  it  was  a  great  nave,  like  a  church, 
lighted  by  a  clerestory,  the  aisles  divided  into 
sleeping-boxes,  like  the  box  beds  still  common  in 


THE  SAXON  HALL  AND  HOUSE    39 

that  country  [Norway],  and  till  lately  in  Scotland; 
the  women's  apartment,  a  separate  building  at 
the  inner  end.  It  was  roofed  at  times,  no  doubt, 
with  turf;  but  the  projecting  beams  were  richly 
carved  and  brightly  painted. 
'  "  This  practice  of  building  in  wood  all  these 
Northern  races  continued  in  the  countries  they 
conquered,  at  least  in  their  more  important 
buildings.  In  the  Icelandic  Sagas,  wood  being 
scarce  there,  we  constantly  read  of  the  richer  men 
sending  to  Norway  for  trees  to  build  a  hall.  .  .  . 
"  In  England  the  Saxon  thane  built  his  hall 
from  the  woods  of  his  demesne  by  the  labour  of 
his  bondmen.  The  roof  was  thatched  with  reeds 
and  straw,  or  covered  with  wooden  shingles, 
supported  by  wooden  posts.  The  king's  villeins 
were  compelled  by  law  to  erect  nine  buildings 
for  him  :  a  hall,  a  chamber,  a  buttery,  a  stable,  a 
dog-house,  a  barn,  a  kiln — or  oven,  I  suppose — a 
privy,  and  a  dormitory.  No  kitchen  was  needed, 
for  the  cooking  was  done  at  the  same  fire  as 
warmed  the  inhabitants,  or  for  great  repasts  or 
in  summer  in  the  open  air,  all  the  more  that 
there  was  risk  of  fire  in  the  wooden  buildings. 
Camping  out  was  the  normal  existence,  the  hall 
being  only  a  more  permanent  camp.  These 
buildings  were  all  of  one  story,  and  were  some- 
times connected  by  covered  ways ;  they  were 
surrounded  by  a  wall.  .   .  .  The  Saxon  lord  and 


40  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

his  '  hearthmen,'  analogous  to  the  Counts  or 
Comites  of  the  Frank  sovereigns,  sat  by  the  same 
fire  at  which  their  repast  was  cooked,  and  at 
night  retired  with  him  to  the  same  dormitory, 
which  served  also  as  a  council  chamber.  The 
manners  were  rough  and  rude.  It  is  told  in 
praise  of  one  king  that  '  he  acted  according  to 
justice,  nor  drunken  struck  his  hearth  com- 
panions.' "  * 

There  is  no  hesitation  in  this  account.  Wood 
is  mentioned  as  the  building  material  for  halls, 
and  roofs  are  either  thatched  or  covered  with 
wooden  shingles.  Yet  we  have  seen  not  only 
that  stone  churches  were  put  up  in  the  seventh 
century,  but  that  lead  was  used  for  two  purposes — 
to  protect  roofs  from  the  wet,  and  to  keep  damp 
and  draught  from  passing  through  walls  of  hewn 
oak.  At  a  time  when  there  was  no  distinction 
between  religious  and  domestic  architecture 
useful  innovations  may  well  have  passed  from 
churches  into  the  great  halls  built  by  kings  and 
thanes.  It  is  certainly  discreet  to  believe  so, 
and  it  does  not  run  counter  to  the  prevalence  of 
wooden  buildings  throughout  the  Middle  Ages. 
Conditions  that  affected  churches  and  brought 
about  improvements  were  not  less  active  when 
the  best  halls  were  put  up  by  wealthy  men. 

Lead,  no  doubt,  was  dearer  than  wood  and 
*  "  House  Architecture,"  by  J.  J.  Stevenson,  ii.  5-6. 


5^)5)  J 


THE  SAXON  HALL  AND  HOUSE    41 

plaster,  and  this  would  limit  the  utility  of  it  in 
building.  On  the  other  hand,  timber  halls  were 
bombarded  with  draughts.  It  is  said,  for  example, 
that  King  Alfred  invented  lanterns  as  a  shield  for 
candles,  which  guttered  when  the  wind  blew  into 
his  rooms  through  crevices.  Timber,  we  must 
suppose,  was  not  seasoned,  and  when  it  shrank 
and  warped  the  plaster  covering  it  would  crack, 
forming  vents  for  the  wind  to  enter  by.  If,  then, 
lead  was  employed  for  some  halls  as  well  as 
in  churches,  ordinary  common  sense  dictated  a 
necessary  improvement. 

Mr.  Stevenson  has  drawn  for  us  in  outline  a 
good  sketch  of  the  Saxon  hall  and  its  outhouses ; 
and  this  sketch  may  be  filled  in  with  many  inter- 
esting details.  From  Anglo-Saxon  vocabularies 
we  may  get  the  names  applied  to  'different  parts 
of  a  building.  An  outer  wall,  surrounding  the 
burh^  was  sometimes  a  great  earthwork  and  some- 
times a  defence  of  stone.  It  had  an  entrance 
strong  enough  to  resist  attack,  and  called  \h^gedt. 
This  gate  led  into  an  enclosed  court  known  as 
the  cafer-tun^  or  inburh.  The  word  wah^  or  'wag^ 
meant  wall  ;  a  stapul  was  a  post  or  log  set  in  the 
ground ;  a  rafter  was  a  rafter  ;  while  swer  and 
stipere  denoted  a  column  and  a  pillar.  A  swer 
helped  to  support  an  arch  or  a  vault,  the  bigels  ; 
or  the  fyrst^  the  inner  part  of  a  roof,  a  ceiling. 
"  The  hrof   or  roof,  was  called  also  thecen^   or 


42  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

thcecen^  a  word  derived  from  the  verb  theccan^  to 
cover  ;  but  although  this  is  the  original  of  our 
modern  w^ord  thatch^  we  must  not  suppose  that 
the  Anglo-Saxon  thcecen  meant  what  we  call  a 
thatched  roof,  for  we  have  the  Anglo-Saxon  word 
thcec-tigel^  a  thatch-tile,  as  well  as  hrof-tigel^  a 
roof-tile."  * 

Thus  far  we  have  learnt  that  a  hall  had 
columns  and  pillars,  and  was  arched  or  vaulted  ; 
and  from  this  we  may  infer  that  it  was  like  a 
Scandinavian  hall,  divided  into  a  nave  flanked 
by  aisles.  Not  less  interesting  are  the  two  kinds 
of  roof-tiles  ;  and  we  shall  see  just  now  that  they 
were  sometimes  carved  and  enriched  with  gilt. 
Some  may  have  been  Roman  tiles  taken  from  a 
Roman  villa  ;  but  those  of  Anglo-Saxon  origin 
were  of  wood,  probably,  as  a  rule.  Here  and 
there,  perhaps,  a  few  may  have  been  of  cast 
lead,  above  all  on  church  roofs. 

The  entrance  to  a  hall,  and  to  other  buildings 
inside  a  tun^  or  exterior  wall,  was  called  the  duru^ 
or  door  ;  and  the  hall  door,  as  described  in  the 
poem  of  Beowulf,  which  dates  from  the  middle 
of  the  fifth  century,  was  fastened  with  fire-bands^ 
with  straps  of  wrought-iron,  probably.  The 
hall  door,  again,  had  at  times  a  selde^  what  we 
should  call  a  porch  ;  and  in  the  illustration  on 

*  "  Domestic  Manners  and  Customs,"  by  Thomas  Wright, 
1862,  p.  12. 


THE  SAXON  HALL  AND  HOUSE    43 

page  40  you  will  see  that  it  was  picturesque, 
being  enriched  with  three  graceful  arches.  The 
lord  is  seated  under  a  great  central  arch,  with 
his  feet  resting  on  a  step  ;  behind  him,  inside 
the  porch,  are  a  number  of  female  attendants  ; 
on  our  right  his  wife  stands  ;  and  she  and  her 
husband  distribute  bread  to  the  hungry. 

Every  detail  of  this  Anglo-Saxon  drawing  has 
great  interest.  No  doubt  the  perspective  is  all 
wrong,  but  that  doesn't  matter  :  it  is  a  thing  to 
be  expected.  Two  kinds  of  roof-tiles  are  clearly 
shown,  and  we  see  how  the  bowers — that  is,  the 
sleeping-rooms — are  attached  to  the  hall,  on 
the  roof  of  which  you  will  note  a  stag's  head. 
Behind  the  hall  is  a  circular  tower  with  a  domed 
roof  of  tiles,  and  with  five  small  windows  com- 
manding the  entrance.  Through  them  missiles 
could  be  thrown  in  times  of  danger.  A  window 
was  known  to  the  Anglo-Saxons  as  eag-thyrl^  an 
eye-hole,  or  eag-duru^  an  eye-door  ;  and  all  the 
windows  in  this  drawing  are  in  accord  with 
those  descriptive  words. 

~  Do  not  neglect  to  study  the  walls,  because 
they  prove  that  stone  or  brick  was  occasionally 
used  for  Anglo-Saxon  halls  and  bowers.  The 
draughtsman  may  have  exaggerated  the  height 
to  which  the  masonry  was  carried ;  anyhow, 
the  present  drawing  represents  very  little  wood- 
work.    All  the  windows  are  set  in  wood,  and 


44  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  porch  is  timber,  like  the  pillared  entrance 
to  a  chapel  on  our  right  hand.  Beside  the 
chapel,  and  built  out  from  its  walls,  is  a  little 
building  with  four  tiny  windows  ;  this  may  be 
a  priest's  cell.  On  the  other  side  of  the  porch, 
guarded  by  spearmen,  is  the  king's  dormitory  ; 
and  next  to  it  are  two  bowers,  with  three 
figures  standing  at  the  door.  Here,  as  else- 
where, the  walls  are  partly  timber  and  partly 
masonry.  Last  of  all,  this  illustration  is  taken 
from  a  Harleian  manuscript  in  the  British 
Museum,  and  Wright  speaks  of  it  as  being 
"  perhaps  as  old  as  the  ninth  century." 

I  The  poem  of  Beowulf  gives  a  very  vivid 
picture  of  Saxon  manners  in  relation  to  the  hall. 
It  relates  how  the  hero  comes  with  his  com- 
panions to  the  royal  hall  of  Hrothgar,  for  the 
purpose  of  freeing  it  from  a  monster  named 
Grendel,)that  appears  at  night  to  prey  upon  its 
inhabitants.^  Beowulf  walks  from  the  shore 
along  a  road  paved  with  stones,  probably  a 
Roman  highway.  When  he  draws  near  to  the 
palace  he  sees  a  hall-gate  rising  aloft,  high  and 
curved  with  pinnacles.  And  the  hall  itself  is 
lofty,  and  fast  within  and  without,  having  iron 
bands  forged  in  a  skilful  manner.  The  roof  is 
steep  and  carved  ;  here  and  there  it  sparkles  with 
gold  ;  and  Be6wulf,  standing  on  the  steps  into 
the  enclosed  burh^  looks  up  at  the  gilded  tiles.  1 


THE  SAXON  HALL  AND  HOUSE    45 

\  Then,  in  accordance  with  a  Saxon  custom,  he 
and  his  comrades  take  off  their  armour  and  leave 
it  in  the  porch  with  a  keeper  ;  and  now  they 
enter  the  hall  as  friends  and  peaceful  men.  The 
walls  inside,  built  of  wood,  are  draped  with 
tapestries,  rich  curtains  bright  with  golden 
threads  and  adorned  with  pictures.  The  floor 
is  mentioned  as  variegated,  so  perhaps  it  is 
paved  with  wooden  shingles,  or  with  some 
tesselated  pavement  taken  from  a  Roman  villa. 
Around  the  hall  benches  are  set  ;  but  Hrothgar's 
chair  or  throne  stands  apart,  isolated  in  a  place  of 
honour,  perhaps  on  a  dais  at  the  far  end,  away 
from  the  keen  draught  that  sings  by  the  front 
door. 

Entering  the  hall,  Beowulf  finds  that  Hrothgar 
is  drinking  ale  and  mead  with  his  hearth  com- 
panions. The  visitor  makes  known  at  once  why 
he  has  come  ;  and  instantly  a  bench  is  cleared 
for  him  and  his  followers.  A  twisted  ale-cup  is 
handed  round,  and  a  bard  begins  to  sing,  so  there 
is  joy  among  the  heroes,  and  much  boasting  over 
deeds  worth  doing  again  ;  and  many  tales  are 
told,  till  the  hour  for  Grendel's  coming  gets 
near  and  nearer. 

But  who  is  this  lady  ?  See  how  she  enters 
the  hall,  and  smiles  her  greetings.  It  is 
Hrothgar's  queen,  Wealtheow,  too  familiar  with 
this  old  scene  of  revelry  to  mind  it.  '  Her  duty 


46  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

is  to  be  a  good  hostess,  so  she  fills  a  twisted  ale- 
cup  and  hands  it  graciously  to  her  lord,  who 
has  already  emptied  it  more  often  than  is  good 
for  him  ;  and  now  the  queen  passes  from  warrior 
to  warrior,  so  that  none  may  be  aggrieved.  This 
ceremony  at  an  end,  she  takes  her  seat  by 
Hrothgar,  and  the  talk  goes  on,  and  the  drink- 
ing continues  till  bedtime. 

The  king  and  queen  now  retire  to  their  bed- 
chamber, known  in  later  times  as  the  bower ; 
here  they  will  sleep  in  queer-looking  cup- 
boards, which  seem  better  for  moments  of  rest 
during  the  day  than  for  sleep  at  night.  But 
if  the  ladies  are  fond  of  drink,  like  their 
husbands  and  brothers,  sleep  would  come  to 
them  anywhere,  even  on  a  roof  if  it  did  not 
slant  so  much.  As  to  Beowulf,  he  will  sleep  in 
the  hall,  "  the  treasure-house  of  men,  adorned 
with  vessels "  ;  "  and  a  multitude  of  warriors 
watch  the  hall,  as  they  before  have  often  done. 
They  uncover  the  bench-planks,  and  spread 
them  all  over  with  beds  and  bolsters  "  ;  and 
near  at  hand,  within  easy  reach,  they  place  their 
wooden  shields,  and  their  helmets  and  ringed- 
mail  shirts.  "  It  is  their  custom,"  says  the 
poem,  "  ever  to  be  ready  for  war,  both  in  house 
and  in  field." 

But  this,  to  be  sure,  does  no  justice  to  the 
effect  of  their  potations.     A  good  Saxon  thirst. 


THE  SAXON  HALL  AND  HOUSE    47 

congenital  and  much  encouraged,  had  no  sym- 
pathy for  war  at  night ;  and  that  is  one  reason 
why  the  monster  Grendel  has  had  such  an  easy 
time  when  he  has  paid  his  nocturnal  visits. 

Still,  now  that  Grendel  comes  and  finds 
Beowulf  on  guard  he  meets  with  a  great  sur- 
prise. He  fights  well,  but  is  slain,  and  "  a  fearful 
terror  falls  on  the  North  Danes,  on  each  of  those 
who  from  the  walls  hear  the  outcry.'*  It  is  not 
clear  how  Grendel  passed  those  watchmen  on 
the  walls.  He  did  not  eat  them,  since  they  hear 
the  combat  ;  and  there  are  other  mysterious 
points.  Hrothgar  and  his  queen  ought  to  be 
awakened  by  the  battle-cries,  because  their 
bower  adjoins  the  hall,  where  the  fight  takes 
place.  Yet  they  know  nothing  about  Grendel's 
death  until  they  enter  the  hall  early  next  morn- 
ing. You  see  what  twisted  ale-cups  can  do  in 
the  way  of  sound  sleep.  Those  watchmen, 
probably,  are  examples  of  enforced  temperance 
under  fear  of  death. 

Beowulf  s  heroism  is  welcomed  by  great  re- 
joicings. The  hall  rings  with  mirth  all  day 
long.  After  dinner  a  minstrel  tunes  his  harp, 
gleemen  sing,  and  rollicking  jokes  are  made  ; 
noise  from  the  benches  becomes  loud,  as  "  cup- 
bearers give  wine  from  wondrous  vessels."  The 
queen,  wearing  a  gold  crown,  is  seated  by  her 
lord  ;  and  drinking  goes  on  till  bedtime. 


48  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

These  sketches  of  early  manners  show  what^ 
Anglo-Saxons  were  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  or  thereabouts,  and  they  changed  little. 
Some  Grendel  or  other  had  always  to  be  faced, 
and  they  were  too  careless  to  act  on  their  own 
account.  Beowulf  would  come,  an  Egbert,  an 
Alfred,  or  some  other  hero,  so  they  might  take 
their  ease  in  their  old  accustomed  manner. 
But  the  last  Beowulf,  Harold  H.,  failed  ;  it  was 
Grendel  that  triumphed  ;  and  when  William  the 
Norman  marched  from  Hastings  to  the  Thames 
he  found  no  fortified  place  till  he  came  to  the 
Roman  walls  around  London. 


c  c       c     c 
c      e        t     c 


c'    c-^    cS- 


c  '   t  c    c'     C  c'    c 


Photo,  //.irris  C-r  Smi,  Xoyth«>iif>lo)i 

Anglo-Saxon  Tower  at  Earl's  Barton,  Northants.    See  pages  49  and  50. 


CHAPTER  III 

SAXON  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  STYLE 

IT  will  be  understood,  of  course,  that  the 
earliest  Anglo-Saxon  timberwork  perished 
long  ago.  Here  and  there  some  ancient 
wooden  barns  remain,  looking  from  outside  like 
primitive  churches ;  and  these  are  the  nearest 
relics  we  can  find  of  much  earlier  work,  for 
their  shape  is  probably  a  repetition  of  hall 
architecture  as  carried  on  before  the  Norman 
Conquest. 

At  Greensted,  near  Ongar,  in  Essex,  is  a  famous 
Saxon  church,  dating  from  the  year  1013.  It 
was  put  up  as  a  temporary  shelter  for  the  remains 
of  St.  Edmund,  when  removed  from  Bury  dur- 
ing a  Danish  incursion.  In  recent  times  it  has 
been  restored,  but  its  original  timber  walls  may 
be  studied  yet  ;  they  consist  of  cleft  oak-trees, 
grooved  and  tongued  together  by  their  edges, 
and  let  into  grooves  in  horizontal  sills  and 
heads. 

At  Earl's  Barton,  Northants,  is  a  Saxon  tower, 
without  buttresses,  and  with  restored  battle- 
ments.    The  walls  are  of  rubble  and  rag-stone  ; 

49  D 


so  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

and  note  how  the  quoins — the  exterior  angles — 
are  constructed.  Some  long  pieces  of  hewn 
stone  are  put  upright,  then  banded  across  by 
shorter  strips  of  ashlar,  or  dressed  stone  ;  so  the 
angles  look  bandaged.  This  way  of  dressing  is 
called  "  long  and  short  work,"  and  it  is  one 
characteristic  by  which  you  may  know  those 
churches  which  have  been  attributed,  in  part,  to 
Saxon  craftsmen.  Only  a  warning  must  be  given 
here.  Long  and  short  work  was  used  during  the 
late  periods  of  Gothic  architecture,  as  at  Cap- 
dock  Church,  Suffolk,  which  belongs  to  the 
Perpendicular  style  (a.d.  1377  to  a.d.  1485)  ;  and 
for  this  reason  you  must  look  for  other  reputed 
Saxon  traits.  At  Earl's  Barton,  for  example, 
the  exterior  walls  are  ornamented  with  vertical 
bands  of  stone  ;  these  form  a  kind  of  ribbon 
decoration,  projecting  a  little  from  the  surface, 
and  divided  into  tiers  by  plain  horizontal  strings, 
or  bands,  and  enriched  with  triangles  and  semi- 
circular arches  made  with  other  strips  of  stone. 
All  this  should  be  remembered  as  very  charac- 
teristic. In  the  tower  at  Sompting  Church, 
Sussex,  this  strip-masonry  runs  up  the  centre  of 
each  face  ;  it  is  flat  and  pilaster-like  below,  but 
the  upper  part  is  semicircular,  like  a  shaft,  and 
a  rough  knob  of  moulded  stone — a  sort  of  capital 
— interrupts  it  midway,  or  thereabouts. 

At  Sompting,  also,  there  are  a  few  tiny  win- 


SAXON  CHARACTERISTICS         51 

dows  with  triangular  heads,  and  this  triangular 
shape  is  another  Saxon  trait.  There  are  windows 
of  this  form  at  Deerhurst,  in  Gloucestershire, 
divided  into  a  couple  of  slits  by  a  short,  flat- 
faced  column  decorated  with  flutings.  On  each 
side  there  are  similar  columns,  and  triangular 
heads  rest  upon  the  three. 

Altogether,  look  for  the  following  things  in 
Saxon  architecture  : 

1 .  Long  and  short  work  at  the  angles. 

2.  Vertical  strips  of  masonry  divided  into  tiers 
by  horizontal  bands. 

3.  Triangular  shapes  and  openings. 

4.  Rude  work  and  rough  materials. 

5.  Doorways  with  semicircular  heads  and  a 
blunt,  uncouth  look,  as  at  Earl's  Barton. 

6.  When  the  belfry  windows  are  round- 
headed,  as  at  Earl's  Barton,  the  mullions  re- 
semble balusters,  as  though  turned  in  a  lathe, 
like  wood. 

7.  Piers  in  churches  are  short,  stumpy,  and 
cylindrical,  and  their  capitals  are  rough  blocks 
of  stone  rudely  axed  into  hollows  and  ovolos,  as 
at  Corhampton.  Capitals  at  Sompting  Church, 
Sussex,  are  carved,  and  show  the  influence  of 
that  Romanesque  art  from  Italian  towns  which 
came  to  England  with  missionaries  and  priests. 

Indeed,  the  style  attributed  to  Saxon  builders 
has    a   coarse    flavour  of  Romanesque   work,  as 


52  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

though  uneducated  peasants  were  trying  to 
speak  ItaHan.  Normans,  too,  were  affected  by 
the  same  model,  their  style  being  an  imitation, 
more  or  less  complete,  of  forms  in  Roman  art. 
Zigzag  ornaments  of  various  kinds,  in  which 
Norman  builders  took  so  much  pleasure,  may 
be  traced  to  that  Italian  source,  like  the  flutings 
on  Norman  columns,  so  that  the  beginnings  of 
English  architecture  continue  and  hand  on  the 
tutorship  of  Rome  and  Italy. 

Remember,  also,  that  when  people  talk  about 
mediaeval  styles  of  architecture  they  do  so  merely 
because  it  is  convenient,  so  as  to  mark  off  the 
periods  into  which  one  style  was  separated  in 
its  evolution.  Each  period  melts  into  another 
very  slowly,  and  with  such  gradual  changes  that 
neither  its  beginning  nor  its  end  can  be  hit 
upon  with  accuracy  ;  but  since  no  study  can 
be  carried  on  without  divisions  to  map  it  out 
clearly  in  our  minds,  mediaeval  styles  have  been 
named,  and  dates  given  to  their  eras,  as  explained 
in  my  Introduction,  on  pages  12  and  13. 


» 


i 


<     e 


.c    ,«:<^    ,  <^- 


c    c   •  c  c 


I'hoto  by  Oihnait  t-^  ci?.,  Oxford. 

Ifki.ey  Church,  Oxkordshire.    An  example  of  Norman  Architecture.    See  page  55. 


CHAPTER  IV 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF  NORMAN 
ARCHITECTURE 

WHAT  are  the  most  typical  traits  in 
a  Norman  building,  and  how  may 
they  be  recognised  by  the  public  ? 
This  question  is  necessarily  difficult  to  answer, 
because  Norman  work  in  England  passed  from 
plain  and  massive  effects  with  few  naouldings  to 
a  much*  lighter  craftsmanship,  not  only  enriched 
with  Elaborate  doorways  and  interesting  orna- 
ment, but  showing  its  transition  into  the  Early 
English  style,  famous  for  its  pointed  arch  and  its 
tall,^  lancet  windows.  To  explain  all  this  in  detail 
would  fill  a  book  ;  and  what  holiday-makers  need 
are  just  three  or  four  clues  to  guide  them  through 
a  labyrinth.  Let  us,  then,  think  for  a  moment 
of  the  famous  arcaded  staircase  at  Canterbury 
— a  very  beautiful  and  rich  example  of  late 
Norman  work. 

The  doorway  is  tall  and  graceful,  and  the  arch 
formed  by  it  is  round-headed,  the  curve  being  semi- 
circular ;  and  this  shape  has  a  varied  character, 
for  it  is  repeated  several  times  by  other  half-circles 

53 


54  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

having  patterns  cut  deep  into  the  stone.  Among 
these  patterns  is  the  zigzag  design,  which  is  to 
Norman  work  what  tooth-ornament  becomes  to 
Early  English  Gothic,  a  very  distinguishing  cha- 
racteristic ;  and  this  tooth-ornament  is  nothing 
more  than  a  double  Norman  zigzag  made  into  a 
square  flower  with  four  petals.  Norman  masonry 
has  other  ornaments  also,  but  zigzag  is  the  most 
usual,  and  from  it  the  more  delicate  chevron  was 
evolved  at  North  Hinksey.  At  North  Hinksey, 
too,  there  is  another  Norman  ornament  which 
is  quite  easy  to  remember,  known  as  the  beak- 
head  moulding,  which  consists  of  beaked  heads 
placed  at  a  little  distance  from  each  other  and 
showing  many  different  expressions  in  their 
eyes.  The  double-cone  moulding  is  another 
clue.  Model  some  new  bread  into  cones,  then 
cut  off  the  pointed  tops,  join  together  two  trun- 
cated tops,  and  then  fit  another  cone  at  either 
end  so  that  the  bottoms  come  neatly  together. 
This  will  give  you  a  cone  moulding,  which  may 
be  continued  to  any  length  you  like.  With 
bread  you  may  make  another  Norman  ornament, 
called  the  billet,  the  simplest  form  of  which  is  in 
Canterbury  Cathedral.  It  represents  a  chess- 
board pattern  made  with  cubes  of  stone.  One 
row  of  cubes  forms  the  white  squares  in  an 
upper  line,  with  hollow  spaces  left  between  for 
the    dark    squares  ;    below,   in    a    second    line. 


NORMAN  CHARACTERISTICS      55 

the  cubes  are  fitted  across  the  dark  apertures 
above. 

Iffley  Church,  Oxfordshire,  has  a  flowered 
ornament  set  in  a  hollow  between  simple  hori- 
zontal mouldings.  The  flowers  have  eight 
petals  and  large  centres.  At  Iffley,  too,  the 
zigzag  mouldings  are  repeated  in  all  the  windows, 
three  of  which  are  round-arched,  while  the  other 
is  a  circle  (p.  53).  This  round  form  is  unusual  in 
Norman  work,  but  there  is  another  good  example 
at  Barfreston  Church,  Kent,  at  the  east  end, 
with  fine  tracery  of  a  transition  type,  showing 
Norman  art  when  it  began  to  melt,  so  to  speak, 
into  the  softer  and  more  refined  forms  of  Early 
English  Gothic. 

You  must  not  expect  to  find  very  delicate 
carving  in  Norman  buildings,  because  masons 
then  worked  with  an  axe,  but  chisels  came  into 
use  during  the  thirteenth  century.  Power, 
weight,  massive  logic  in  construction — these  are 
Norman  as  well  as  Roman  characteristics,  and 
they  belong  to  a  practical  race  of  soldiers.  Nor- 
man columns,  often  polygonal  in  plan,  are  not 
only  strong  enough  for  the  burdens  they  carry  : 
they  look  strong  enough,  and  this  gives  an  im- 
pression of  rugged  and  simple  grandeur.  At 
Bristol,  Exeter,  and  Gloucester  the  massive 
columns  are  round  ;  in  Durham  Cathedral  they 
are  fluted,  and  enriched  also  with  zigzag  channel- 


56  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

lings  ;  while  at- Peterborough  you  will  find  some 
clustered  piers.  Here,  too,  in  the  roof  is  an 
example  of  Norman  decoration  in  distemper. 
Norman  architects  formed  lozenges  with  black 
and  white,  or  with  simple  colours  arranged  in 
stripes,  and  the  effect  is  simple  and  good. 

Norman  masonry  of  the  first  period  has  wide 
joints  of  mortar,  while  in  late  work  the  stones 
are  pressed  together,  leaving  a  very  thin  line  of 
cement.  The  cushion-shaped  capital  is  well 
known  ;  it  belongs  to  early  times,  and  when  it  is 
decorated  with  volutes — curls  of  stone — we  know 
that  the  Norman  style  has  reached  its  middle 
period. 

In  London  there  are  three  excellent  examples 
of  Norman  architecture : 

1.  St.  Bartholomew's  the  Great,  Smithfield. 

2.  The  round  portion  of  the  Temple  Church, 
transitional  in  style. 

3.  The  White  Tower  and  St.  John's  Chapel 
in  the  Tower. 


>,'?>?' 


KORTH  HINKSET.  BERZ.3. 


GUIBRA7.  NORMANCr 


FEESNE  CAMILT.Y.  NORMANDT. 


BREDGAR.  KEKT 


DEEPING   ST.  JAMES    LINCOLNSHIRE. 


NEW  ROMNEY,  KENT. 


IFFLET.  OXFORDSHIRE. 


HADISCOE    NORFOLK. 


ANDOVER.  HANTS.  BEADLIED  . 

Near  Caen  Normandy . 

Examples  of  Norman  Zigzag  Mouldings. 


CHAPTER  V 
HALL  AND  HOUSE  IN  NORMAN  TIMES 

THE  Norman  Conquest  influenced  Eng- 
land's art  in  four  ways  : 
I .  Saxon  churches  were  pulled  down 
in  large  numbers,  and  better  ones  were  put  up. 

2.  Stone  castles,  blind-looking  as  despair,  were 
built  as  a  warning  to  Anglo-Saxon  discontent. 

3.  Stone  was  used  for  some  manor-houses,  and 
occasionally  in  towns. 

4.  The  natives,  beaten  but  not  subdued,  learnt 
the  Norman  art  of  castle  -  building,  and  yet 
remained  true,  in  their  own  homes,  to  their 
traditional  timberwork. 

This  point  is  often  forgotten.  Yet  it  is  worth 
attention,  if  only  because  true  Norman  work  has 
in  its  purest  forms  no  quality  that  speaks  with 
tenderness  of  home — it  does  not  suggest  the 
presence  of  women  and  children.  It  is  masculine 
through  and  through  ;  and  in  this  we  come 
upon  its  inner  weakness,  because  real  genius  in 
art  is  not  wholly  masculine — its  qualities  are 
always  partly  feminine.  Genius,  indeed,  is  a 
single  creative  agency  with  a  double  sex,  for  in 

57 


58  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

it  the  attributes  of  women  and  men  are  summed 
up.  When  the  Norman  style  merged  into  Early 
English  feminine  qualities  began  to  show  them- 
selves, and  in  1280  they  appeared  in  the  glorious 
Angel  Choir  at  Lincoln  ^Cathedral,  built  as  a 
shrine  for  St.  Hugh  of  Avalon.  But  twelfth- 
century  Norman  work,  before  its  transitional 
period  began,  does  not  remind  us  of  Coleridge's 
saying,  that  "  all  great  minds  must  be  andro- 
gynous." 

This  want  of  feminine  qualities  in  Norman  art 
seems  to  have  been  disliked  by  Anglo-Saxons, 
who  clung  tenaciously  to  their  gentler-looking 
timber  halls  and  cabins.  Of  course,  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  "  house-place  "  had  its  own  shortcomings  ; 
it  looked  unkempt  in  peasant  cottages  as  late  as 
the  fourteenth  century,  but  it  was  a  home  in 
which  yeomen  and  peasants  evolved  their  own 
ideals,  and  from  which  they  would  not  budge. 
Even  in  towns,  where  efforts  were  made  to 
restrain  them,  people  kept  resolutely  to  the  slow 
development  of  old  wooden  sheds  and  halls  ;  and 
it  is  also  worth  nothing  that  timberwork  of 
the  twelfth  century  appears  to  have  been  in 
essentials  what  it  was  a  hundred  years  later, 
during  the  long  reign  of  Henry  HL 

Housebote  was  a  customary  right  of  tenants, 
and  the  better  class  of  yeomen  had  wooden  halls 
built  on  gavels  and  a  frame,  the  spaces  between 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      59 

the  skeleton  being  either  lathed  and  plastered 
within  and  without,  or  filled  with  mud-clay 
kneaded  up  with  chopped  reeds,  just  as  house- 
martins  made  their  nests  with  pieces  of  straw 
embedded  in  layers  of  loam.  A  yeoman's  sleeping- 
room  under  the  thatched  roof  was  entered  by  a 
ladder,  a  rude  staircase,  as  a  rule  inside  the  hall ; 
but  sometimes  it  may  have  been  put  outside,  and 
protected  from  the  wet  by  a  timber  awning.  The 
furniture  was  very  simple — a  few  benches  and  a 
chest  or  two,  some  wooden  platters,  and  a  tripod 
for  cooking  purposes.  The  walls  seem  to  have 
been  coloured  with  archil  and  whitewash,  and 
along  them  on  wooden  pegs  some  farm  implements 
dangled.  The  floor  was  littered  with  dirty  grass 
and  rushes,  a  bacon-rack  swung  from  the  roof- 
beams,  a  fire  crackled  on  a  hob  of  clay  at  some 
distance  from  the  fragile  walls,  and  wood  and 
peat  smoke  disinfected  an  atmosphere  which 
was  ever  tainted,  and  drove  away  some  of  the 
innumerable  vermin.  Chimneys  were  unknown, 
except  in  castles  and  in  manor-houses.  This 
picture  is  not  exaggerated,  and  to  appreciate 
what  it  means  we  must  bear  in  mind  certain 
influences  more  favourable  to  stone  buildings 
than  to  these  timber  houses. 
|,  I .  Clothing,  usually  home-made,  was  not  tfiick 
enough  to  keep  out  the  cold ;  and  when  a  storm 
came,   and  a  village    river    flooded    into    spate, 


6o  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

wooden  houses  were  often  carried  away  whole- 
sale, as  Matthew  Paris  related  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  Thus,  for  many  reasons,  stone  houses 
would  have  been  useful  in  manor-villages. 

2.  There  must  have  been  knowledge  enough 
to  build  stone  cottages,  because  not  less  than 
eleven  hundred  castles  were  put  up  during  the 
nineteen  years  of  King  Stephen*s  reign  (1135— 
1 1 54) ;  and  although  a  great  many  were  pulled 
down  by  Henry  H.,  castle-building  went  on 
through  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries, 
so  that  great  numbers  of  English  workmen  must 
have  been  expert  masons.  Still,  wood  was  at 
hand  in  the  great  forests,  it  could  be  worked 
freely  with  simple  tools,  it  was  easier  to  carry 
than  stone,  and,  apart  from  all  this,  the  English 
loved  timber  not  only  because  it  was  cheap  and 
good,  but  because  it  "  set  their  genius "  after 
ages  of  hallowed  custom.  That  is  the  real  point, 
though  many  writers  lose  sight  of  it.  Some 
believe  that  stone  was  too  dear,  whereas  it  was 
cheap  enough,  as  Thorold  Rogers  proved  ;  and 
others  explain  the  English  use  of  timber  houses 
by  saying  that  brickwork  was  a  lost  art.  This 
too  is  a  mistake.  The  old  name  for  a  brick  was 
tigel,  or  tile.  Roman  bricks  were  really  tiles,  for 
they  were  not  more  than  an  inch  or  an  inch  and 
a  half  in  thickness,  and  tiles  very  like  them  were 
used  by  the  Normans  during  the  twelfth  century. 


}  J  J       3  J  J 


MANOR  HOUSE.   BOOTHBY   PAGKELL.  LINCOLNSHIRE 


..^'• 


ti 


^:, 


St.  Mary's  Guild,  Lincoln.    Norman  Period. 

Drawn  by  W.  Twopeny  in  1823.     See  pages  81  aj:d  2>2. 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      6i 

If  a  yeoman  had  cared  for  brick  and  stone,  he 
would  have  used  them  at  times,  we  may  be 
sure. 

Even  in  towns,  as  I  have  said,  people  were 
loyal  to  their  favourite  building  materials, 
although  wood  was  discouraged  by  civic  autho- 
rities. London  is  the  best  example,  because 
timber  houses  were  common  there  till  the 
Great  Fire  of  1666,  by  which  the  city  was 
ruined  from  London  Bridge  to  Temple  Bar.  The 
disaster  began  on  a  Sunday  night,  September  2, 
at  a  baker's  shop  in  Pudding  Lane,  the  very 
district  near  London  Bridge  which  was  deemed 
most  perilous  during  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  when  the  opposition  to  timber  houses 
began. 

In  1 1 35,  the  first  year  of  Stephen's  reign,  a 
fire  spread  from  London  Bridge  to  St.  Clement 
Danes,  destroying  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  At  that 
time  the  city  was  filled  with  wooden  cabins 
thatched  with  reeds,  rushes,  straw,  and  other 
litter  ;  and  as  the  damage  done  by  the  fire  was 
very  great,  leading  citizens  took  counsel  together, 
and  decided  to  put  up  stone  houses  covered  and 
protected  by  thick  tiles.  These  buildings  had  a 
very  good  efi^ect  when  a  fire  arose  in  the  city  and 
threatened  to  be  dangerous  ;  for  they  were  little 
fortifications  between  the  fragile  blocks  of  timber 
houses,   and   that   was    very    important    from    a 


62  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

public  standpoint.  On  the  other  hand,  those 
who  lived  in  stone  houses  were  far  from  satisfied. 
The  lot  of  a  buffer  State  has  never  been  a  pleasant 
one  ;  and  the  wealthier  citizens  complained  that 
their  good  masonry  was  always  in  danger  from 
wooden  cabins  near  at  hand.  So  disputes  arose 
between  neighbours  touching  the  boundaries 
which  either  existed  or  ought  to  be  made 
between  their  lands,  till  at  last  the  contentions 
had  to  be  settled  by  certain  town  rules,  which  may 
be  looked  upon  as  the  origin  of  our  own  Building 
Acts.  They  were  known  as  the  "  Assize  "  of 
1 1 89.  When  approved  by  the  Common  Council 
they  were  put  into  writing,  and  this  document 
has  come  down  to  our  times.* 

There  is  something  uncanny  in  this  little  sheaf 
of  city  regulations,  for  they  speak  to  us  in  voices 
and  ambitions  which  once  were  powerful,  seven 
hundred  and  nineteen  years  ago.  The  men  who 
framed  these  rules  one  by  one,  after  much  dis- 
puting, had  their  schemes  for  human  improve- 
ment, and  these  have  outlived  their  authors  by 
more  than  seven  centuries,  here  in  this  document, 
the  Assize  of  11 89.  Let  us  imagine — you  and 
me — that  we  are  London  citizens  of  that  year, 
and  intent  upon  following  the  regulations. 

*  See  Turner  and  Parker's  "  Domestic  Architecture  in 
England  in  the  Middle  Ages'*  (3  vols.,  1851-59).  The  original 
document  is  given  in  the  appendix,  vol.  i. 


I        NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      63 

*  We  are  well-to-do,  and  our  lands  adjoin,  but 
our  houses  look  at  each  other  through  oil-paper 
windows  set  in  plastered  timber,  and  your  wife 
tells  mine  that  she  dreams  of  fire  and  awakes 
with  her  heart  between  her  teeth.  So  we  agree 
to  build  between  us  a  stone  wall  three  feet  thick 
and  sixteen  feet  high  ;  and  at  our  joint  expense 
we  make  a  gutter  on  one  side  of  this  wall,  so  that 
the  water  from  both  houses  may  be  carried  off 
without  injury  to  cither  of  us.  There  is  no 
difficult  point  to  solve,  yet  some  of  our  neigh- 
bours are  at  loggerheads.  One  says  that  he 
would  decline  to  share  a  gutter  with  the  king 
himself ;  he  wants  every  drop  of  water  from  his 
roof  to  nourish  his  back  garden,  and  there  his 
gutter  shall  go.  Another  prefers  to  let  his 
gutter  run  into  the  high  street,  and  the  regula- 
tions give  him  permission. 

No  sooner  is  our  wall  finished  than  you  come 
to  me  and  say  :  "  Neighbour,  my  side  the  wall 
must  go  up  higher,  because  my  solar  is  too  low, 
and  I  need  a  higher  wall  for  the  beams  to  rest 
upon.''  If  I  raise  mine  also,  then  the  building 
will  be  a  joint  expense  ;  if  not,  you  can  raise 
your  own  part  as  much  as  you  please  at  your 
own  cost,  but  the  rain  from  the  new  solar  must 
drip  into  our  gutter,  and  not  into  the  founda- 
tions of  my  house,  nor  into  any  part  of  my 
land. 


64  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Then  another  point  comes  up  for  discussion. 
You  remind  me  that  the  stone  wall  is  very  much 
liked  by  women,  because  arches  may  be  built  into 
it  for  aumbries  or  cupboards.  The  regulations 
say,  indeed,  that  each  of  us  has  the  right  to  sink 
arched  cupboards  one  foot  deep  into  the  masonry, 
so  that  the  wall  between  the  recesses  may  be  one 
foot  thick,  the  total  thickness  of  our  joint!  wall 
being  three  feet.  But  if  either  of  us  does  not 
need  a  cupboard,  what  then  ?  He  who  wants 
one  buys  the  freestone  and  has  it  cut,  but  the 
arch  must  be  set  and  the  work  finished  at  our 
joint  expense.  Here  the  regulations  encourage 
tidiness.. 

Suppose,  now,  that  the  business  we  have 
done  together  had  been  hindered  by  poverty  on 
your  side  or  mine  ;  say  that  one  of  us  could  not 
afford  to  build  in  freestone  and  rubble.  The 
rules  guide  us  in  this  matter.  One  of  us  gives 
three  feet  of  his  own  land  for  the  wall  to  rest 
upon,  while  the  other  pays  for  the  building  ;  and 
the  wall  belongs  to  both  of  us  in  equal  measure, 
and  each  can  put  timber  on  his  half  and  build. 
This  means  that  the  gift  of  land  is  considered 
equal  to  the  other  costs — or  nearly  so  ;  for  the 
laws  say  :  "  If  tenants  would  have  arched 
recesses,  let  them  be  made  on  each  side  the  wall, 
as  aforesaid,  but  he  who  giveth  the  land  shall 
find  freestone  and  cause  it  to  be  cut,  while  the 


' ''  J'  >  "l  'J   ' 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      65 

other  at  his  own  cost  shall  set  it.''  This  done, 
neither  of  us  has  the  right  to  pull  down 
any  portion  of  the  wall,  nor  lessen  its  thickness, 
nor  make  new  recesses  in  it,  without  the  other's 
assent  and  will. 

But  this  stone  barrier,  three  feet  thick  and 
sixteen  feet  high,  is  only  a  party-wall,  and  we 
are  free  to  build  out  from  it  whatever  kind  of 
house  we  like,  whether  of  stone  or  of  timber. 
Party-walls  have  grown  enormously  in  height 
since  1189,  but  their  thickness  has  dwindled 
away,  strength  giving  place  to  rash  economy. 

Another  regulation  shows  that  if  a  tenant 
built  a  party-wall  on  his  own  land  and  at  his 
own  cost  he  had  certain  rights  and  privileges 
over  his  neighbour  next  door.  For  instance, 
he  could  block  his  neighbour's  view  and  keep 
the  light  from  his  windows,  unless  the  neigh- 
bour could  bring  forward  a  legal  agree- 
ment that  guarded  him  from  this  tribulation. 
"  Ancient  lights "  did  not  exist  in  London  at 
that  early  date.  The  rules  are  clear  on  this 
point. 

The  following  regulation  denotes  some  care 
in  sanitary  matters  : 

"  And  concerning  the  necessary  chambers  in 
the  houses  of  citizens,  it  is  thus  appointed  and 
ordained  :  that  if  the  pit  made  in  such  a  chamber 
be  walled  with  stpne,  the  mouth  of  the  said  pit 


66  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

shall  be  distant  two  feet  and  a  half  from  the 
land  of  a  neighbour,  even  although  there  be 
a  common  wall  between  them.  But  if  it 
should  not  be  lined  with  stone,  it  ought  to 
be  three  feet  and  a  half  from  the  neighbour's 
land." 

But  these  regulations,  like  so  many  things 
English,  failed  through  excessive  compromise  ; 
the  party-walls  were  not  obligatory.  It  was 
thought  enough  to  praise  them  as  essential, 
leaving  those  who  were  willing,  or  able,  to 
build  them  of  stone.  The  result,  of  course, 
was  inevitable.  Timber  houses — mere  cabins, 
most  of  them — were  common  in  all  parts  of  the 
city  except  Cheapside  ;  and  at  last,  on  July  ii, 
1 21 2,  another  great  fire  broke  out,  and  London 
Bridge  was  destroyed.  So  the  citizens  took 
counsel  once  again,  and  a  new  set  of  decrees 
was  published. 

All  ale-houses  were  forbidden,  except  those 
which  were  licensed  by  the  Common  Council 
at  the  Guildhall,  and  those  which  their  owners 
would  rebuild  in  stone.  People  who  worked 
by  night — bakers,  for  instance,  and  ale-wives — 
were  put  under  discipline.  To  save  expense 
they  had  got  into  a  habit  of  feeding  their  fires 
with  stubble,  reeds,  and  straw  ;  nothing  but 
wood  was  now  permitted.  Ale-wives  were 
the  women    who    brewed ;    and    their    business 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      67 

prospered  so  well  that  in  the  fifteenth  century- 
Fleet  Street  was  famous  for  its  ale-wives. 
Many  risks  attended  their  work,  and  the  re- 
gulations of  1 21 2  were  not  strict  enough. 
Another  decree  of  that  date  showed  much 
concern  for  the  cook-shops  on  the  Thames. 
They  were  not  whitewashed,  they  needed 
plaster  inside  and  outside  ;  and  many  wooden 
cabins  had  gathered  about  them  and  formed 
hostelries — places  were  people  slept,  no  doubt. 
All  these  shanties  were  condemned,  and  a  cook- 
shop  became  a  building  in  two  parts  :  a  bed- 
room, and  a  house-place  or  hall,  in  which  the 
family  attended  to  customers. 

Further,  citizens  were  ordered  not  to  make 
roofs  with  reeds,  "  nor  rush,  nor  with  any 
manner  of  litter,  but  with  tile  only,  or  shingle, 
or  boards,  or,  if  it  may  be,  with  lead,  within 
the  city  and  Portsoken.  Also,  all  houses  which 
till  now  are  covered  with  reed  or  rush,  which 
can  be  plastered,  let  them  be  plastered  within 
eight  days,  and  let  those  which  shall  not  be  so 
plastered  within  the  term  be  demolished  by 
the  alderman  and  lawful  men  of  the  venue." 
Above  all,  the  stone  houses  in  Cheapside  must 
be  protected  from  the  wooden  buildings  nearest 
to  them.  These  "  shall  be  securely  amended 
by  view  of  the  mayor  and  sheriffs,  and  good 
men  of  the  city,  or,  without  any  exception,  to 


68  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

whomsoever  they  belong,  pulled  down.  .  .  . 
Let  all  the  aldermen  have  a  proper  hook  and 
cord/'  with  which  to  destroy  the  dangerous 
wooden  structures. 

What  a  picture  !  Put  in  a  hook,  and  pull 
on  a  cord,  and  down  comes  a  London  house 
of  the  year  1212  !  Yet  the  daily  pay  of 
carpenters,  like  that  of  tilers  and  masons, 
was  equal  to  thirty  shillings  a  week  in  our 
money,  being  fourpence  halfpenny  a  day 
without  keep,  and  threepence  with  keep. 
These  were  the  wages  fixed  by  ordinance  in 
1212. 

Those  cook-shops  by  the  Thames  are  also 
full  of  interest.  They  were  inns  for  travellers 
when  that  ordinance  attacked  them,  and  many 
became  public  ordinaries.  They  stretched 
along  the  road  from  St.  Paul's,  by  Watling 
Street,  to  the  Tower. 

Consider,  too,  how  the  Inns  of  Court  had 
their  origin.  At  first,  like  the  inns  of  our 
universities,  they  were  nothing  more  than 
clustered  timber  sheds  where  students  lodged, 
taking  their  meals  in  large  common  halls,  to 
which  common  kitchens  were  attached.* 

And  now  we  must  take  a  glance  at  the 
Norman    castles,  to    see   what  effect  they    had 

*  Turner  and  Parker's  "Domestic  Architecture  of  the 
Middle  Ages,"  i.  I'J-Z']  \  also  appendix, 


^^J 


WINDU'.V,    .Sr)!j  1  K    SllJi 


PRINCIPAL   DOC^RWAY. 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      69 

on  the  progress  of  domestic  building.  It  is  a 
custom  to  praise  their  defensive  art,  and  yet 
there  is  little  to  admire  if  we  test  it  and  them 
from  a  practical  standpoint.  A  Norman  castle 
was  the  negation  of  comfort  and  convenience  ; 
hence  noblemen  would  not  live  in  their  '^  keeps  " 
during  quiet  reigns. 

There  is  something  cowardly  and  ignoble  in 
the  look  of  a  feudal  castle,  something  that  invites 
contempt,  because  the  very  men  who  called 
themselves  warriors,  and  who  from  the  age  of 
seven  were  taught  to  be  brave  as  soldiers,  were 
yet  so  afraid  to  be  killed  that  they  feared  to 
let  in  the  light  of  day  to  their  rooms,  lest  arrows 
should  enter  by  the  same  windows  as  the  neces- 
sary sun.  Near  the  ground  windows  were  for- 
bidden, and  those  high  up  the  walls  were  little 
better  than  the  slits  that  ventilated  barns  and 
kept  hay  from  sweating  itself  into  a  fever.  In- 
doors, where  a  fitful  dusk  lasted  all  day  long  from 
dawn  to  sunset,  the  seneschal  lived  on  the  second 
and  third  stories,  always  distressed  by  bad  ven- 
tilation. Between  him  and  the  outside  air  was 
a  wall  from  twelve  to  fourteen  feet  in  thickness, 
a  thing  most  wonderfully  at  odds  with  any  danger 
which  could  threaten  it  during  a  time  of  siege. 
For  the  real  defence  rested,  or  should  have 
rested,  with  the  exterior  lines  of  fortification — 
the  moat,  with  its  bank,  and  the  encompassing 


70  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

walls,  with  their  towers  and  bastions.  It  was 
here  that  battles  were  lost  or  won.  The 
castle  itself  was  a  last  refuge  for  the  defeated — 
a  prison. 

The  whole  art  of  defensive  war  was  misunder- 
stood, always  to  the  injury  of  health  and  comfort. 
Castles  expressed  in  stone  the  same  fear  that 
governed  the  development  of  body-armour,  till 
at  last  men  died  under  their  weight  of  steel,  or, 
when  unhorsed,  lay  on  their  backs  like  turtles, 
waiting  to  be  killed  or  captured.  The  desire  to 
live  was  far  stronger  during  the  Middle  Ages 
than  it  is  to-day ;  and  then,  as  now,  the 
truest  courage  was  shown  by  those  who  had 
little  clothing  between  them  and  the  battle 
perils. 

Under  such  conditions  of  over-defensive  cus-  j 
toms  and  tactics,  military  architecture  was  little  1 
likely  to  beneifit  domestic  work,  though  castles 
in  a  time  of  siege  were  as  crowded  with  human 
beings  as  modern  hotels  are.  No  doubt  im- 
provements did  appear,  and  the  Tower  of  London 
is  a  good  specimen  of  the  square  Norman  keep, 
with  flanking  turrets,  also  rectangular  in  shape. 
A  plan  of  this  castle  may  be  found  in  guide- 
books, so  its  character  as  a  dwelling-place  may 
be  studied.  There  is  here,  perhaps,  a  slight  affinity 
with  domestic  art,  but  it  is  so  trivial  as  to  be 
hardly  noticeable.     Yet  for  each  day  of  war  the 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      71 

inmates  had  to  endure  many  months  that  brought 
unneedful  discomforts  into  their  lives.  When 
the  Tower  of  London  became  a  bastile,  a  prison 
for  State  offenders  or  supposed  enemies  of  the 
Crown,  the  logic  of  the  architecture  was  carried 
to  its  last  consequences.  Feudal  castles  were 
prisons — that  and  nothing  more. 

Still,  the  English  house  owes  something  to 
their  long  reign.  Take,  for  example,  the  in- 
fluence of  hoards.  What  was  a  hoard  .?  It  was 
a  thing  that  denoted  another  step  in  the  defective 
art  of  mediaeval  defence.  Nobles  and  knights, 
ever  anxious  about  their  safety,  could  not  harass 
themselves  enough  over  devices  that  might  keep 
them  in  secure  misery  within  their  castles. 
"  How  shall  we  defend  ourselves  if  the  enemy 
shall  break  through  to  our  walls  ?  "  they  asked. 
"  Can  we  keep  the  battering-rams  at  a  distance, 
and  kill  the  men  who  assail  us  with  the  oblong 
covered  sheds  known  as  cats  ? "  The  right 
answer  to  this  question  was  the  hoard — a  timber 
structure,  superimposed  on  the  solid  walls  below 
the  parapets,  and  projecting  beyond  them,  so  that 
men  could  hurl  down  stones  and  boiling  oil  upon 
foes  at  the  castle's  base.  In  early  examples  the 
hoards  rested  on  strong  timber  beams,  pushed 
from  inside  through  holes  in  the  walls,  and  ex- 
tending outward  to  form  strong  corbels,  upon 
which  wooden  galleries  were  erected,  sometimes 


^ 


72  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

roofed  over  to  shield  the  defenders  from  falling 
arrows.  This  innovation  dates  from  the  twelfth 
century,  and  lasted  till  the  fourteenth,  when 
hoards  were  displaced  by  overhanging  works  of 
stone — balconies,  galleries,  and  cornices,  upheld 
by  great  stone  corbels  put  from  three  to  four 
feet  apart,  and  having  apertures  in  their  floors,  so 
that  missiles  and  fluids  might  be  poured  through 
the  holes  and  slits.  The  efi^ect  of  these  projec- 
tions was  picturesque,  and  their  influence  on 
architecture  lasted,  for  England  got  from  them 
the  overhanging  battlements  and  cornices  that 
gave  so  much  charm  and  dignity  both  to  early 
Tudor  and  to  Elizabethan  turrets  and  gate- 
towers. 

Indeed,  the  real  value  of  castles  to  English 
house  architecture  was  like  the  shooting  of  bad 
archers,  who  hit  the  mark  by  accident.  This 
means  that  military  needs  had  an  indirect  effect 
on  homes,  passing  with  nobles  to  their  manor- 
houses.  Here,  as  time  went  on,  battlements 
became  ornamental  details,  while  turreted  gate- 
ways were  to  family  life  what  spires  were  to 
the  communal  spirit — namely,  accepted  marks 
of  prosperous  self-content. 

Castle  Rising,  in  Norfolk,  has  appealed  to 
many  writers  as  perhaps  the  best  example  of 
an  armoured  manor-house  built  by  the  Normans. 
The    disposition    of  its   plan    is  remarkable    in 


ROCHESTER  CASTLE,  circa  U30 


CONlSBOr^CGH   CASTLE,  circa  inO 

Norman  Fireplaces.     See  faife  go. 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      73 

many  ways  ;  it  seems  too  good  for  the  twelfth 
century.  The  comfort  suggested  by  it  may 
appear  cold  and  hard,  yet  the  design  shows 
more  domestic  thought  than  was  usual  at  that 
date.  Let  us,  then,  see  what  were  the  usual 
characteristics  of  Norman  manor-houses  and 
royal  palaces. 

During  the  twelfth  century,  in  the  southern 
parts  of  England,  they  were  built,  as  a  rule,  on 
one  uniform  design,  comprising  a  good  hall  and 
a  chamber.  Two  chambers  were  very  uncommon. 
The  hall  was  the  only  large  room.  Its  position 
was  generally  on  the  ground  floor,  but  sometimes 
it  was  placed  over  a  lower  story  sunk  half  in  the 
ground,  another  example  of  the  burrowing  instinct 
so  common  among  men.  The  Normans,  like  the 
Saxons,  used  their  hall  as  a  bedroom  for  their 
servants  and  retainers,  bolsters  and  sacks  of  hay 
being  placed  on  benches  and  on  the  floor  ;  it  is 
not  surprising  that  minstrels  sang  about  this 
ancient  custom,  and  made  frequent  reference  to 
the  immoralities  that  sprang  from  it.  Add  to 
this  simple  plan  a  kitchen,  a  larder,  a  sewery,  and 
a  cellar,  and  you  have  all  the  accommodation 
in  a  twelfth  -  century  manor  -  house.  Even 
the  king's  country  palaces  at  Kennington, 
Clarendon,  Woodstock,  Portsmouth,  and  South- 
ampton, though  on  a  larger  scale,  had  only 
one  more  apartment,  and    that   was    a   chapel. 


74  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

At  Clarendon,  please  note,  his  Majesty  had  to 
reach  the  chapel  by  a  ladder  communicating 
with  a  trapdoor,  and  this  inconvenience  was 
not  done  away  with  till  Henry  III.  built  a 
spiral  staircase. 

Perhaps  you  have  heard  of  Alexander  Nequam, 
or  Necham,  who  lived  under  the  reigns  of 
Henry  II.,  Richard  I.,  and  John.  It  is  said 
that  he  was  born  at  St.  Albans  in  1157,  acted 
as  schoolmaster  in  the  grammar  school  from 
^188  to  1 195,  became  Abbot  of  Cirencester  in 
1 2 14,  and  died  three  years  later.  Nequam  is 
mentioned  here  because  he  has  a  good  many 
things  to  say  about  domestic  architecture  in 
his  treatise  "  De  Nominibus  Utensilium."  When 
describing  the  various  parts  of  a  house  he 
mentions  six  rooms  :  the  hall,  a  bedroom,  or 
private  chamber,  a  kitchen,  a  larder,  a  cellar, 
and  a  sewery. 

"  In  the  hall,"  says  Nequam,  "  let  there  be 
pillars  at  due  intervals."  Sometimes  these  pil- 
lars divided  the  hall  into  three  parts,  like  a 
church,  as  at  Oakham  Castle,  Rutlandshire, 
built  by  Walkelin  de  Ferrars  between  1165  and 
1 191.  At  other  times — but  this  was  uncommon 
— the  pillars  ran  down  the  centre  and  formed  a 
support  for  the  ridge  or  crest  of  the  roof.  In 
the  royal  hall  at  Clarendon  the  columns  were 
marble.      Arched  ceilings  were    common,  and 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      75 

were  always  built  of  timber.  The  windows  of 
a  hall  looked  towards  the  east,  so  as  to  catch  the 
sunrise. 

Nequam  says  that  the  hall  had  a  porch  beside 
the  vestibule,  and  a  courtyard  too.  Here  the 
kitchen  stood.  It  was  open  in  the  roof,  and  I 
know  not  how  the  cook  managed  to  do  his  work 
with  comfort.  Near  the  hall  was  a  little  inner 
court,  where  poultry  grew  fat  for  the  table. 
According  to  Nequam,  halls  were  roofed  with 
tiles  and  with  stone  shingles,  usually  oval  in  form, 
like  the  Roman  shingles.  Tiles  seem  to  have 
been  fastened  by  wooden  pegs.  It  is  curious, 
but  Nequam  does  not  mention  lead  as  a  roofing 
material.  Perhaps  he  considered  it  too  expensive  ; 
yet  lead  was  much  used  at  that  time  for  churches, 
and  a  great  deal  was  exported  to  France,  where 
the  abbey  of  Clervaux  was  roofed  with  Cumber- 
land lead  given  by  Henry  II.  We  may  be  sure 
that  nobles  did  not  forget  to  use  it  for  English 
manor-houses.  The  principal  lead-mines  were 
in  Cumberland,  at  Swaledale,  Yorkshire,  and 
Allendale,  Northumberland.  It  was  purchased 
in  bulk,  and  cast  into  sheets  at  the  building 
sites.* 

Norman  roofs  had  a  good  pitch,  and  manu- 
scripts   of    the    period    represent     them    with 

*  Turner  and  Parker's  "Domestic  Architecture  of  the 
Middle  Ages,"  i.  9. 


76  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

embattled  parapets.  According  to  the  Bayeux 
tapestry,  not  to  speak  of  the  Caedmon  MS., 
outside  walls  were  richly  painted  with  formal 
patterns,  among  which  is  the  chessboard  square, 
sometimes  with  an  O  in  the  middle.  The  roof, 
too,  is  either  coloured  or  tiled  in  long,  tapering 
bands.  It  may  be  thought,  perhaps,  that  artists 
introduced  colour  to  make  their  drawings  gay. 
But  in  the  illustrations  given  by  Parker  the 
effects  have  an  air  of  realness,  as  though  done 
from  nature.  Apart  from  this,  the  first  crusades 
made  the  Normans  familiar  with  the  external 
decoration  that  gave  a  varied  colour  to  many  a 
building  both  in  Constantinople  and  in  Italian 
cities.  One  tower  of  Windsor  Castle,  during 
the  fourteenth  century,  was  certainly  tinted 
outside  with  several  colours  ;  *  and  this  may 
well  be  a  continuation  of  an  old  tradition  started 
by  the  Normans  in  the  time  of  Nequam. 
Nequam  says  that  painting  and  carving  were 
used  indoors,  and  then  lifts  his  eyebrows  with 
disapproval. 

Indeed,  this  good  monk  imagined  that  his 
rugged  time  was  too  luxurious.  He  complained 
because  the  interior  walls  were  polished  by  the 
mason's  trowel  ;  and  ornamental  stonework  an- 
noyed him  because  it  encouraged  spiders  to  spin 
webs.  Tapestry  he  did  not  mind  in  a  private 
*  Turner  and  Parker,  i.  ii  and  12. 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      77 

room  ;  it  was  welcome  there  on  the  walls,  as 
flies  and  spiders  were  then  less  noticeable.  In 
the  hall,  Nequam  says,  tapestry  should  be  hung 
from  the  epistyle  ;  and  this  way  of  obtaining 
privacy  in  the  common  room  lasted  to  the 
sixteenth  century. 

Wood  floors  were  common  in  private  rooms, 
but  they  were  rarely  seen  ;  rushes  covered 
them  during  the  winter,  and  green  grass  in 
summer.  Walls  in  a  common  room  were  hung 
with  armour  and  with  weapons,  except  at  the 
dais  end,  where  tapestry  seems  to  have  been 
common.  Doors  were  heavy  and  picturesque, 
their  hinges  having  elaborate  strap  -  bands, 
twisted  into  scrolls  ;  and  locks  had  ornamented 
scutcheons.  Norman  ironwork  has  real  in- 
terest. 

"  The  private,  or  bed,  room  was  situated  on 
the  second  story,  and  was  called,  from  an 
early  period,  the  solar,  or  sollere  ;  and  a 
chamber  beneath  it,  on  a  level  with  the  hall, 
^  was  called  the  cellar,  and  used  as  such.  It 
would  appear  that  there  was  no  internal  com- 
munication between  the  cellar  and  solar,  access 
from  the  latter  to  the  hall  being  had  by  stairs 
of  stone  or  wood  within  the  hall  or  on  its 
exterior.  .  .  .  Frequently  the  only  fireplace 
in  the  building  was  in  the  solar.  ...  A  bed 
and   a    chest    were    the    chief"  furniture,    and 


78  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  chest  served  the  place  of  a  wardrobe, 
and  held  the  owner's  cumbrous  apparel  and 
valuables.  It  may  be  added  that  coffins 
were  often  made  like  chests,  with  locks  and 
hinges,  and  are  so  represented  in  ancient 
drawings."* 

To  sum  up,  Norman  manor-houses,  like  the 
royal  country  seats,  were  of  two  kinds.  At 
Oakham  Castle,  Rutland,  the  plan  had  a  large 
hall  on  the  ground  floor,  with  no  room  above 
it  nor  cellar  below  ;  while  in  other  examples, 
as  at  Boothby  Pagnel,  Lincolnshire,  there  were 
two  stories,  the  lower  one  vaulted,  and  the 
upper  floor  approached  from  outside  by  a  flight 
of  steps.  I  am  able  to  give  drawings  of  these 
houses  on  pages  60  and  64. 

The  building  at  Oakham  Castle,  about  fifty 
years  ago,  was  adapted  as  a  county  hall,  but 
without  harm  to  its  main  features.  Our  artist 
then  sketched  this  twelfth-century  hall,  and  we 
will  look  at  it  with  him.  The  building  stands  east 
and  west,  and  its  doorway  is  interestingly  Norman. 
The  east-end  gable  had  a  window  to  let  in  the 
sunlight  before  breakfast.  It  is  blocked  up  in 
our  illustrations,  but  in  style  it  belonged  to 
the  later  years  of  the  twelfth  century,  perhaps 
even   to    the    beginning    of  King  John's    reign 

♦  Turner  and  Parker's  "  Domestic  Architecture  of  the 
Middle  Ages,"  i.  5,  13,  16. 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      79 

(11 99-1 2 1 6)  ;  for  the  transition  from  Norman 
r  to  Early  English  was  emphatically  shown  by  the 
two  pointed  lights  within  a  round-headed  aper- 
ture.    There    are    four   windows    each    on    thc> 
north  and  south  sides,  all  various  in  detail,  but 
uniform    in    general    treatment.       The  exterior 
view  shows  two  lancet-shaped  lights  divided  by 
a  shafted  mullion,  while  the  view  indoors  has 
marked    differences.      Here  the   head  forms    a 
round-arched  tympanum,  and  the  openings  for 
light  are  square,  the  upper  parts  of  the  lancets 
being  solid,  and  either  left  plain  or  filled  in  with 
trefoils,  with  foliage,  or  with  small  arches.     The 
shafted  mullions  have  usually  on  each  side  a  row 
of  tooth-ornament.     At  one  time,  as  Turner  and 
Parker  point  out,  all  the  windows  had  shafts  in 
their  jambs,  some  round,  others  octagonal,  but 
this  beauty  vanished  long  ago,  except  a  portion 
in  one  window  on  the  north  side,  which  is  cut 
out  of  the  same  stone  as  the  jamb.     I  give  a 
page  of  illustrations  to  show  (i)  a  round-headed 
window-recess  decorated  with  tooth-ornament  ; 
(2)  the  principal  doorway  ;  and  (3)  one  beautiful 
window  ;  and  you  will  see  at  a  glance  that  our 
own  architects  may  learn  not  a  little  from  this 
architecture  (p.  68).     How  delightful  our  own 
houses  would  look  with  windows  as  luxuriously 
simple  as  this  good  Norman  art  !  Note  the  tooth- 
ornament  as  marking  the  transitional  character 


8o  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

of  this  Norman  work  ;  and  observe  that  the 
shaft  on  the  centre  muUion  is  octagonal,  while 
those  at  the  sides  are  round. 

Were  these  windows  glazed  in  the  twelfth 
century  ?  There  is  no  evidence  to  prove  that  they 
were.  The  Exchequer  accounts  of  Henry  II. 's 
time  make  frequent  reference  to  windows,  their 
making  and  repairing,  but  glass  does  not  appear 
in  the  charges,  and  so  the  probability  is  that  I 
house  windows  were  usually  fitted  with  wooden 
shutters,  lattices,  or  fenestrals,  and  sometimes 
with  iron  bars,  as  we  know  they  continued  to 
be  in  the  thirteenth  and  early  in  the  fourteenth  I 
century,  long  after  glass  had  found  its  way  | 
into  royal  palaces  and  houses  of  the  nobility.* 
We  must  remember,  too,  that  windows  were 
often  covered  with  some  oiled  fabric,  through 
which  light  passed  as  through  a  thin  modern 
blind. 

And  now  let  us  turn  again  to  the  drawing.  The 
walls  are  built  of  rubble,  with  ashlar  quoins  and 
buttresses,  the  word  ashlar  meaning  that  the 
stones  are  dressed  (p.  64).  Do  not  fail  to  study 
the  buttresses ;  they  are  typically  late  Norman, 
and  resemble  pilasters  rather  than  strong  abut- 
ments ;  and  this  characteristic  was  borrowed  from 
Romanesque  buildings.  Norman  builders  did  not 
understand  the  use  of  buttresses,  and  were  there- 
*  Turner  and  Parker,  i.  13, 


p   1. 


r 


^  ^~ 


<  S 


NORMAN  HALL  AND  HOUSE      8i 

fore  apt  to  make  them  too  weak,  as  at  Peter- 
borough Cathedral,  where  the  thrust  from  the 
arches  proved  too  strong  for  some  portions  of 
the  walls. 

For  the  rest,  the  hall  at  Oakham  measures 
65  ft.  by  43  ft.  ;  there  are  two  rows  of  circular 
pillars  and  arches, and  the  lateral  divisions  are  lean- 
tos.      The  dormer-windows  are  modern  (p.  64). 

Another  drawing  by  William  Twopeny  repre- 
sents a  twelfth-century  house  at  Lincoln,  known 
as  the  Jew's  House.  "  The  chief  interest  it 
possesses  arises  from  the  richness  and  character- 
istic design  of  the  external  ornamentation.  We 
find  in  the  latter  many  of  the  details  .  .  .  which 
illustrate  the  style  of  the  time.  There  is,  first, 
the  deeply  recessed  doorway,  with  its  shaft, 
and  double  zigzag  archivolt.  The  archway 
over  the  door  is  made  use  of  in  a  curious 
manner  to  support  the  fireplace  and  chimney 
belonging  to  the  upper  story.  The  chimney 
itself  has  been  modernised,"*  like  those  windows 
which  stare  at  us  through  square  openings. 
The  other  windows  are  Norman,  as  their  form 
will  tell  you. 

St.  Mary's  Guild,  Lincoln,  commonly  called 
John  of  Gaunt's  Stables,  is  another  drawing  by 
Twopeny ;  and  I  need  but  draw  your  attention 

*  "Lectures  on  Architecture,"  by  E.  M.  Barry,  R.A., 
p.  224. 

F 


82  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

to  a  rich  string-course  of  sculptured  foliage,  and 
to  the  tall,  flat  buttresses  (p.  60).  The  doorway- 
is  good,  and  transitional  in  character,  with  a 
peculiar  kind  of  tooth-ornament  in  a  shallow 
moulding.  Only  one  window  is  shown,  but  its 
shape  is  worth  noting,  because  it  has  some 
resemblance  to  the  lancet  windows  of  Early 
English  Gothic.  Turner  and  Parker  give 
another  view  of  this  building,  vol.  i.  p.  40. 


I 


CHAPTER  VI 
HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY 

IN  Chapter  V.,  between  pages  62  and  68,  an 
account  is  given  of  two  London  "  Assizes  " 
— that  is,  two  sets  of  town  regulations, 
dating  from  the  years  11 89  and  121 2.  They 
were  directed  against  timber  houses  and  cabins, 
among  which  fires  broke  out  and  endangered 
the  whole  city.  These  wooden  structures  were 
so  frail  that  they  could  be  pulled  down  with 
a  cord  and  a  long  pole  armed  with  a  hook  ; 
and  no  part  of  the  city  was  free  from  them. 
Their  presence  was  especially  feared  in  Cheap- 
side,  where  some  good  stone  houses  made  a 
brave  show  for  the  wealthier  citizens.  But 
the  most  dangerous  parts  lay  between  London 
Bridge  and  St.  Clement  Danes,  where  wooden 
shanties  and  hovels  were  packed  together, 
forming  those  narrow  lanes  and  alleys  along 
which  lepers  were  sternly  forbidden  to  pass, 
lest  they  should  brush  shoulders  with  persons 
who  were  in  good  health. 

London,  no  doubt,  in  the  twelfth   and  thir- 
teenth centuries  was  like  a  torch   ready  to  be 

83 


» 


84  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

lighted  ;  and  hence  the  regulations  framed 
and  published  in  1189  and  121 2.  Yet,  some- 
how, neither  ordinance  had  a  word  to  say 
about  fireplaces  and  chimneys  ;  and  from  this 
silence — silence  on  a  matter  that  affected  any 
system  of  rules  against  public  risks  by  fire 
— three  things  may  be  inferred  with  confi- 
dence. 

The  first  is  that  flues  were  very  uncommon 
in  London  walls  during  the  Norman  period-^ 
/>.,  from  1066  to  about  1189  ;  and  the  second, 
that  only  the  best  houses  and  shops  were  built 
with  two  floors.  Twelfth-century  fireplaces 
were  put  in  the  solars  as  a  rule,  and  a  solar  was 
a  private  loft  or  chamber  on  the  second  floor. 
That  was  the  usual  position  ;  and  documents  of 
a  later  date  refer  to  it  as  a  loft.  The  third 
point  is  that  cook-shops  and  other  timber 
cabins  were  sheds  one  story  high,  divided  into 
a  bower  and  a  hall.  A  fire,  or  a  cooking-stove, 
was  placed  in  the  middle  of  each  hall,  with  an 
opening  in  the  roof  above  for  smoke  ;  and  hence 
the  danger  that  bakers  and  ale-wives  ran  at 
night  when  they  kept  up  their  fires  with  litter, 
that  threw  out  sparks  by  the  thousand  {see 
p.  66).  Then,  as  to  the  position  of  a  fire- 
place and  flue  in  rich  houses,  they  were  not  put 
in  party-walls,  because  that,  in  some  measure, 
would  have  defeated  the  purpose  to  be  served  by 


FlREl'LACES. 


See  page  9] 


HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY    85 

those  stone  barriers  ;  but  the  flues  may  have 
been  constructed  either  in  or  upon  the  front 
and  back  walls,  or  carried  up  in  the  gables,  as 
in  some  manor-houses. 

The  evolution  of  chimneys,  how^ever,  is  one 
of  the  most  difficult  questions  to  be  found  in 
our  domestic  architecture.  It  is  "  wropped  in 
mystery/'  Long  ago  the  word  chimney  was 
applied  not  to  chimney-shafts  alone,  but  to  fire- 
places also,  and  to  a  portable  stove — chymna  de 
ferro^  an  iron  fire-grate,  as  it  is  called  in  the 
inventories  of  Finchale  Priory,  a.d.  1360.  All 
this,  no  doubt,  is  perplexing  ;  but  some  facts 
stand  out  clearly.  Thus,  Leland,  writing  as  late 
as  the  year  1538,  was  astonished  to  find  that 
chimneys  at  Bolton  Castle  were  carried  up  the 
.  walls.  Now  Bolton  Castle  was  built  by  the 
first  Lord  Scrope  in  eighteen  years,  and  was 
finished  before  Richard  II.  ended  his  dramatic 
reign,  a.d.  1399.  "One  thinge  I  muche  noted 
in  the  HauUe  of  Bolton,"  Leland  wrote  ;  "  how 
chimeneys  were  conveyed  by  tunnels  made  on 
the  syds  of  the  walls,  betwyxt  the  Lights  in  the 
HauUe  ;  and  by  this  means,  and  by  no  Covers, 
is  the  smoke  of  the  Harthe  in  the  HauUe 
wonder  strangely  conveyed.'*  Now  Leland  knew 
his  England  with  thoroughness  ;  he  was  her  Bos- 
well  ;  and  hence  we  may  believe  that  chimney- 
shafts   in    halls,   forming  tubes  outside   ^  wall, 


86  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

were  rare  in  1538.  At  an  earlier  date  they 
must  have  been  rarer  still.  It  is  true,  no  doubt, 
that  a  primitive  central  hearth  and  a  louvre  in 
the  roof  were  common  in  halls  at  a  time  when 
fireplaces  were  built  in  the  more  private  rooms; 
and  this  accounts  for  some  of  the  surprise  ex- 
pressed by  Leland,  since  he  was  speaking  of  a 
hall  as  old  as  King  Richard  II. 's  abdication. 
The  word  "  covers  '*  may,  indeed,  be  a  misprint 
for  "  lovers,"  one  way  in  which  "  louvres  "  was 
written. 

On  the  other  hand,  covers  were  used  in  the 
best  houses,  and  Leland's  surprise  was  not  caused 
by  his  seeing  chimneys,  which  dated  back  to  the 
twelfth  century,  but  only  that  they  were  made 
on  the  sides  of  walls  between  the  windows  of  a 
hall^  and  that  smoke  was  "  wonder  strangely 
conYtytA''  from  the  hearth^  which  had,  of  course, 
a  central  position,  as  in  other  halls.  At  Bolton 
Castle  there  are  no  chimneys  or  fireplaces  in 
the  hall,  either  between  the  windows  or  any- 
where else  ;  and  the  woodwork,  or  lath-and- 
plaster  work,  has  all  disappeared.  Many  in- 
genious hands  were  employed  at  Bolton  ;  and 
it  seems  probable  that  some  one  invented  a 
means  by  which  smoke  was  conveyed  from 
the  central  hearth,  probably  in  a  kind  of 
pipes  or  chimneys  of  lath  and  plaster,  with  a 
hood  suspended  over  the  fire,  these  pipes  being 


HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY    87 

carried  to  the  wall  between  the  windows,  and 
now  destroyed. "* 

As  early  as  the  twelfth  century  we  find  that 
the  lath  and  plaster  were  occasionally  used  for 
fireplaces  and  chimneys,  sometimes  to  form  a 
canopy  built  on  the  walls,  and  sometimes  raised 
above  a  central  hearth,  with  a  funnel  rising  to 
the  louvre.  This  contrivance  was  mentioned  by 
Aubrey  as  a  flue.  "  Antiently  before  the  Refor- 
mation," he  wrote,  "  ordinary  men's  houses,  as 
copyholders  and  the  like,  had  no  chimneys,  but 
fleus  like  louver  holes  :  some  of  them  were  in 
being  when  I  was  a  boy.''  Mr.  Addy  believes 
that  when  we  read  in  old  authors  of  the  absence 
of  chimneys,  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  the 
open  hearth,  except  in  the  hovels  of  the  poorest 
inhabitants,  was  without  a  funnel  of  some 
kind  to  convey  the  smoke.  "  It  is  true 
that  stone  or  brick  flues  which  formed  tubes 
in  the  sides  of  the  walls  were  only  to  be 
found  in  castles  or  large  buildings,  but  wood- 
and-plaster  canopies  or  covers  to  convey  the 
smoke  were  commonly  used  from  a  very  early 
period."  f 

"  Very  early  period  "  is  at  once  too  indefinite 
and  too  strong.  It  might  apply  to  ancient  Britons 
or  to  early  periods  of  the  Middle  Ages  ;  hence  it 

*  Turner  and  Parker,  ii.  227,  228. 

t  S.  O.  Addy's  "Evolution  of  the  English  House,"  p.  117. 


88  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

has  no  real  meaning.  Thorold  Rogers,  who 
knew  the  thirteenth  century  and  its  town  and 
country  life  better  than  any  other  historian,  has 
taught  us  that  yeomen  and  peasants  allowed 
their  smoke  to  escape  "through  the  door,  or 
whatever  other  aperture  it  could  reach."*  So 
that  "  very  early  period "  among  the  poor  is 
later  than  the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  and 
Edward  I.  Personally  I  do  not  believe  .  that 
wood-and-plaster  canopies  were  at  all  common 
among  yeomen  and  peasants  before  the  latter 
part  of  the  fourteenth  century.  Rich  men 
would  commonly  use  something  better  than 
plaster  and  timber  ;  while  yeomen  were  really 
benefited  by  wood  and  peat  smoke,  which 
was  to  the  Middle  Ages  what  Keating's 
powder  became  to  nineteenth-century  fleas 
and  other  vermin.  Writers  on  architecture 
forget  this  fact,  and  their  eyes  water  as 
soon  as  they  begin  to  think  about  mediasval 
smoke.  One  may  refer  them  to  J.  J.  Jusse- 
rand's  "  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Middle 
Ages,"  where  a  vivid  picture  is  given  of 
the  dirt  that  prevailed  even  in  public  hostels 
during  the  fourteenth  century.  Fleas  sought 
refuge  from  smoke  under  rushes  on  the  floor, 
where  they  were  found  in  pecks.  Altogether, 
then,  too  much  fuss  may  be  made  about 
*  <*  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,"  p.  (q. 


HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY  89 

chimneys  and  their  evolution.  There  is 
nothing  to  show  that  average  Englishmen 
during  the  Middle  Ages  wished  to  free  their 
homes  from  wood  and  peat  smoke,  which  was 
very  much  less  pungent  and  dirty  than  coal 
smoke  in  a  railway  underground.  How  long 
did  we  moderns  stand  that  abomination  ?  ' 

Among  the  well-to-do  it  was  different,  because 
ladies'  dresses  were  luxurious  and  costly,  and 
wood  smoke  injured  them,  just  as  it  soiled  rooms 
in  Chaucer's  cottage  (p.  168).  So  the  first  chim- 
neys were  built  in  private  chambers  where  ladies 
slept,  and  where  household  work  was  done  during 
the  day.  Turner  and  Parker  give  illustrations 
of  early  fireplaces,  so  that  you  may  see  their 
construction  at  a  glance.  One  at  Colchester 
Castle,  Essex,  dates  from  the  twelfth  century  ;  it 
is  built  partly  of  Roman-like  tiles,  those  in  the 
round-headed  recess  forming  a  herring-bone 
pattern  ;  and  that  recess,  again,  is  shallow.  At 
Boothby  Pagnel,  Lincolnshire,  a  Norman  fire- 
place has  great  interest,  for  its  chimney-piece 
represents  a  stone  canopy  built  on  the  wall ;  it 
is  carried  up  to  no  great  height ;  and  where  it 
stops  a  hole  is  made  through  the  masonry  for 
smoke  to  go  out  by  into  the  open  air.  There  is 
some  distance  from  this  canopy  to  the  stone 
hearth,  so  draughts  would  probably  blow  into 
the  room  many  whiffs  of  smoke.     This  fireplace 


90  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

corresponds  very  minutely  with  those  which 
are  given  in  twelfth-century  illuminations,  and 
its  design  was  not  varied  much  before  the 
fifteenth  century.* 

A  fireplace  at  Rochester  Castle,  Kent,  is  more 
elaborate  (p.  72).  It  has  a  semicircular  arch  en- 
riched with  Norman  zigzags  ;  its  back  is  semi- 
circular and  deeply  recessed  ;  and  there  are  shafts 
in  the  jambs.  Note  the  capitals,  for  they  are  carved 
in  such  a  way  that  they  prevent  the  zigzag  orna- 
ment from  asserting  itself  too  much.  Rochester 
Castle  dates  from  about  11 30.  Conisborough 
Castle  is  later  by  about  forty  years,  and  a  fire- 
place and  chimney-piece  show  more  invention,  if 
less  practical  knowledge.  There  is  no  recess  in 
which  timber  could  burn,  supported  by  firedogs  ; 
the  back  slants  inwardly  as  it  rises  ;  and  one 
thinks  that  logs  must  have  been  put  on  end 
against  that  slope,  for  smoke  could  not  otherwise 
be  drawn  from  hearth  to  chimney.  At  least, 
our  illustration  conveys  that  idea  (p.  72).  Note, 
again,  that  the  jambs  have  clustered  shafts,  an 
attractive  feature,  and  that  the  mantelpiece  forms 
what  is  known  as  a  straight  arch,  several  stones 
being  ingeniously  keyed  together  to  make  a  flat 
lintel  or  breastsummer  across  the  fireplace. 
You    will    find    this    keyed    stonework    in    the 

*  Turner   and    Parker's    "Domestic   Architecture   of    the 
Middle  Ages,"  i.  13. 


'5     >         :>       5 


HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY   91 

canopy    at    Boothby    Pagnel    in    Turner     and 
Parker's   book. 

Another  illustration — Aydon  Castle,  North- 
umberland {circa  1270) — is  a  development  from 
this  example  at  Conisborough  (p.  84).  It  has  a 
sloping  back,  but  the  hearth  is  well  recessed, 
leaving  space  enough  for  logs  to  lie  across  the 
andirons  ;  and  above  it  is  a  projecting  chimney- 
piece  supported  by  brackets.  Other  fireplaces 
at  Aydon  Castle  are  different.  One  has  shafted 
jambs  built  against  the  wall  ;  they  project  into 
the  room  ;  and  over  all  is  a  covering  hood 
that  tapers  upwards.  Chimney-shafts  at  Aydon 
are  for  the  most  part  carried  up  singly  in  plain, 
solid-looking  channels. 

From  Aydon  Castle  we  pass  to  Edlingham 
Castle,  Northumberland  (circa  1330),  and  thence 
to  Sherborne  Abbey,  Dorsetshire  (circa  1470). 
The  Edlingham  fireplace  belongs  to  the  Deco- 
rated style,  while  the  other  is  a  gracious  and 
friendly  example  of  Perpendicular  (p.  84).  It 
springs  from  the  same  tradition  as  the  Norman 
art  at  Rochester  and  Conisborough,  so  that  these 
illustrations  denote  more  than  three  centuries  of 
gradual  evolution.  These  fireplaces,  one  and 
all,  have  a  fine  hospitality  ;  they  are  in  them- 
selves hosts  and  hostesses,  and  we  learn  from 
them  how  to  appreciate  that  old-time  phrase 
v/hich  bids  us  "  Welcome  to  the  hearth  !  ''     At 


92  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

a  later  date,  when  Gothic  architecture  became 
merged  in  the  Renaissance,  chimney-pieces 
were  enriched  in  a  splendid  manner,  and  Eliza- 
bethan and  Jacobean  mansions  kept  up  the  old 
and  genial  hearth-worship.  Here,  for  ex- 
ample, is  a  delightful  fireplace  at  Speke  Hall, 
Lancashire,  a  fine  and  perfect  specimen  of  an 
Elizabethan  timber  house  (p.  88).  The  archi- 
tecture here  belongs  to  late  times  in  Elizabeth's 
reign,  and  some  work  was  done  after  James  1. 
came  to  his  English  throne.  I  have  chosen  the 
drawing-room  fireplace,  with  its  wide,  arched 
recess,  its  carved  overmantel  rising  to  the 
corniced  ceiling,  and  with  a  delightful  bay- 
window  at  the  side,  raised  one  step  above  the 
floor,  and  having  panelled  seats.  What  an 
air  of  cosy  stateliness  there  is  in  this  royal  art, 
and  with  what  admirable  judgment  Joseph 
Nash  has  introduced  figures  into  his  drawing  ! 
Everything  is  in  perfect  accord,  even  costumes 
and  chairs  forming  a  necessary  part  of  this 
style  in  home  architecture.  It  is  a  period  in 
history,  not  a  style  in  building.  If  a  man 
were  to  live  in  such  a  room  as  this  one  he 
could  not  wear  his  dull,  formal  modern  dress  ; 
he  would  need  right  costumes,  like  an  Eliza- 
bethan play. 

Nash   illustrates    the    hall    at    Speke,    richly 
panelled,  spacious,  and  with  a  group  of  retainers 


ABIKGDON   ABBEY     DERK.a 
circa  1250. 


A7D0N  CASTLE,  NORTHDMBERLAND. 
circa  1280 


SHEIvBOBNE  ABBEY    DORSET, 
circa  13C0. 


fW^^^n 


EXTON,  RUTI.AND. 
circa  1350 


Chimneys. 


See  page  98. 


HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY    93 

gathered  about  its  deep  fireplace,  above  which 
stand  suits  of  complete  armour,  looking  like  gal- 
lant knights  at  attention.  If  King  Alfred  could 
be  summoned  into  this  splendid  hall,  what 
would  he  think,  what  would  he  say  f  He,  a 
great  king,  lodged  so  humbly  that  he  had  to 
invent  lanterns  to  keep  his  poor  candles  from 
guttering  ?  Home  architecture  in  England 
advanced  through  the  Middle  Ages  with  a 
slowness  equal  to  the  minute  year's  growth  of 
a  yew-tree,  but  in  the  long  run  a  wonderful 
grandeur  was  attained. 

As  a  contrast  to  this  Lancashire  work  in 
Speke  Hall  here  is  a  noble  fireplace  at  Levens, 
Westmoreland,  belonging  to  the  late  sixteenth 
century,  and  typical  of  its  period  (p.  90).  There 
are  many  other  examples  in  Nash's  "  Mansions." 

Still,  delightful  as  our  ancient  fireplaces 
were,  they  had  one  disadvantage  to  their  jolly 
cheerfulness  :  they  burnt  far  too  much  fuel ;  and 
it  says  much  for  the  conservatism  of  English- 
men that  open  fires  have  not  disappeared,  sent 
into  the  limbo  of  dead  traditions  by  the  ex- 
cessive price  of  coal  in  all  English  towns.  A 
large  proportion  of  the  heat  from  every  fire 
goes  up  a  chimney,  and  the  rest  is  badly  dis- 
tributed, so  that  we  may  feel  in  one  large  room 
all  the  many  variations  of  temperature  by  which 
our  English  year  has  won  a  diversified  reputa- 


94  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

tion    for   itself.     Near    a    fire  we   are    in  mid- 
August,   and  from  dog-day   heat  we  may   pass 
through   winter   into  spring.      This  experience 
means    a    great  waste  of  coal.     Many  millions 
of  tons  have  sent  their  heat   up  English  chim- 
ney-shafts   year   after  year — lost  heat    and  lost 
money.       Open  hearths   are   certainly  doomed. 
Spendthrift    fireplaces    cannot   for    ever    be    an 
outward  and  visible   sign  of  English  economy. 
Besides,  "  if  a  man  feels  warm,"    says    Mr.    E. 
M.  Barry,  R.A.,  "  he  does  not  think  of  a  fire, 
or  expect  to  see  one.      With  November  chills 
we  look  at  our  cold  grates,  and  wish  to  see  a 
bright    fire    burning    in    them."     But   if  rooms 
were  warmed  we  should  look   at  empty  grates 
with    no    more    concern    than   we    feel  at  mid- 
summer.     That    is    the    real  point.      We   may 
be   economical   without  discomfort,  and  money 
saved  will  help  us  to  buy  a  pension  at  the  age 
of  seventy,  if  not  something  better  at  an  earlier 
date.     On  the  other  hand,  many  Americans  are 
tired  of  steam-heat,  and  their  doctors  prescribe 
open  fires.     Here,  no  doubt,  is  another  side  of 
this  question.     Health  as  well  as  economy  has 
to   be  considered  ;  and  English  architects  must 
devise  something  better   than  steam-heat,  with 
its  bad  effects  on  the  throat  and  the  nose  and 
lungs. 

You   see,    then,    that    the    evolution    of    our 


NORTHBOROUGH.  NORTH.ulci^aLAND 
circa  1340 


THORNBURY  CASTLE.  GLOaCE0TERSZ;:HE 
A.D.  1514. 


LAYER  M:ARNEY,  ESSEX, 


Chimneys. 


irollijltllll 
TONBRIDGE  SCHOOL,  KENT. 

See  pages  9S  and  99. 


HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY  95 

chimney  is  indeed  perplexing.  How  it  origi- 
nated in  the  twelfth  century  is  one  problem, 
and  how  to  get  rid  of  it  in  the  twentieth  is 
another.  It  has  been  worth  while  to  consider 
these  matters,  because  English  houses  at  the 
present  time  are  affected  by  rnany  things  which 
have  a  tendency  to  renew  their  youth.  Refer- 
ence has  already  been  made  (p.  31)  to  a  reaction 
in  favour  of  rounded  rooms,  and  now  it  is  clear 
also  that  an  open  fire  is  too  wasteful  and  expen- 
sive for  those  of  us  who  work  hard  for  a  small 
and  precarious  income,  which  illness  may  stop 
at  any  moment.  This  applies  to  at  least  80  per 
cent,  of  the  population.  And  then,  of  course, 
the  disappearance  of  fireplaces  and  chimneys  will 
mean  a  great  revolution  in  our  homes.  Think 
for  a  moment  what  London  will  be  without 
that  immense  people,  her  innumerable  chimney- 
stacks,  puffing  out  smoke  into  a  winter  atmo- 
sphere ready  at  any  minute  to  thicken  into  a 
black  fog.  For  long  ages  London  had  no 
chimneys ;  but  there  was  plenty  of  smoke, 
fragrant  with  peat  and  wood.  Coal  was  intro- 
duced in  the  fifteenth  century,  and  Londoners 
began  to  cry  out  against  its  dirt  and  fogs. 
Chimneys  and  smoke  have  now  to  disappear  at 
the  same  time  ;  and  this  problem  will  be  solved 
by  electricians  working  with  architects  for  a 
common  purpose. 


96  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

London  chimney-stacks  may  well  be  described 
as  an  immense  people,  but  they  have  little 
beauty  if  you  examine  them  one  by  one. 
Effective  in  mass,  in  a  crowd,  they  look 
unkempt  and  ragged  if  you  detach  them.  It  is 
no  uncommon  thing  to  see  half  a  dozen  different 
pots  on  one  big  stack,  patent  pots,  one  and  all, 
and  giving  many  examples  of  ugliness  in  short 
and  in  long  shapes.  These  things  speak  to  us 
about  smoky  rooms  and  the  many  ways  in 
which  experts  fight  against  them.  It  is  a 
cheap  and  pleasant  recreation  to  study  the 
chimney-pots  of  London  from  the  top  of  a 
'bus  ;  and  I  cannot  too  earnestly  recommend 
you  never  to  take  a  house  or  a  flat  until  you 
have  seen  what  the  chimney-pots  are  like.  If 
they  vary  much  in  form  and  size  be  suspicious, 
and  write  to  the  last  tenant  for  an  assurance 
that  the  chimneys  do  not  smoke  under  certain 
conditions  of  wind  and  rain.  No  one  takes  a 
servant  without  a  character ;  but  men  who 
pride  themselves  on  their  common  sense  do  not 
hesitate  to  take  houses  and  flats  without  writing 
for  testimonials  to  their  last  tenants. 

Too  much  stress  cannot  be  laid  on  this  point. 
A  smoky  chimney  makes  life  unbearable  ;  and 
E.  M.  Barry,  R.A.,  is  right  when  he  says  that 
at  present  chimneys  are  one  of  the  architect's 
greatest  difficulties  in  large  towns,  as  from  the 


[.  Badwell  Hall,  Suffolk,  1500.  2.  Barton,  Isle  of  Wight,  1490. 

3.   East  Basham  Hall,  Norfolk,   1520.        4.  Clare,  Suffolk,   1520. 


i   HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY    97 

way  in  which  buildings  of  different  heights  are 
crowded  together,  and  from  the  general  use  of 
coal,  the  disposal  of  the  smoke  is  often  a 
problem  not  easy  to  solve,  while  its  effect  on 
our  architecture  is  deplorable.  Our  ancestors 
appear  to  have  been  freer  from  these  troubles, 
and  their  records  do  not,  so  far  as  I  am  aware, 
contain  any  mention  of  the  profession  of 
"  chimney  doctors."  To-day,  on  the  other  hand, 
every  resident  agent  in  a  block  of  flats  has  to 
be  something  of  a  chimney  doctor,  though  he 
prefers  to  wriggle  out  of  his  difficulties  by 
telling  lies  to  would-be  tenants.  If  trouble 
begins  after  a  lease  has  been  signed  he  has 
always  at  hand  a  patent  chimney-pot,  which 
may  or  may  not  be  effective. 

One  other  warning  may  be  given  here.  Do 
not  take  a  house  with  chimneys  on  outside 
walls,  unless  the  walls  are  thick  and  well-built. 
Much  coal  is  wasted  even  in  a  central  chimney- 
stack,  but  the  waste  is  much  greater,  and  a  house 
colder,  when  fires  burn  against  thin  exterior  walls. 
Builders  are  not  careful  enough  in  this  matter. 
And  they  forget  also  pretty  often  that  chimneys 
should  be  few,  for  economy's  sake,  and  their 
position  well  balanced,  for  nothing  so  mars  the 
composition  as  a  lot  of  small  and  thin  chimneys 
that  come  out  of  the  roof  at  unexpected  places. 
"  Tall  and  massive  chimneys  add  immensely  to 


98  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  beauty  of  a  house,  and  perhaps  no  architect 
has  realised  this  so  clearly  as  Mr.  Norman  Shaw, 
R.A.,  who  has  shown  himself  a  great  master  in 
the  art  of  grouping  and  arranging  his  chimneys." 
I  quote  here  the  opinion  of  Mr.  E.  Guy  Dawber, 
whose  judgments  are  always  good  and  sound. 

For  the  rest,  some  illustrations  are  given  here 
to  show  the  art  displayed  by  old  masters  in  the 
spring  of  their  chimneys  from  side  walls,  as  at 
Aydon  Castle  (p.  92),  or  from  roofs.  At  Abingdon 
Abbey,  Berkshire,  built  about  the  year  1250,  a 
tall  chimney  ends  in  a  turret  with  two  gables, 
and  in  each  gable  is  an  Early  English  opening 
divided  into  three  pointed  arches  for  smoke  to 
pass  through.  This  idea  is  poetic  as  well  as 
picturesque,  for  it  implies  that  a  chimney  out- 
side speaks  of  the  home  within,  and  is  worthy  of 
the  same  art  that  enriched  churches  (p.  92). 

At  Sherborne  Abbey,  Dorset,  about  fifty  years 
later  in  date,  the  chimney  is  a  stone  funnel,  tall 
and  circular,  formed  into  a  cone  at  top,  and 
crowned  with  a  small  finial.  Apertures  for  the 
smoke  are  trefoil  holes  and  lancet  windows. 
Here  again  there  is  symbolism  ;  while  at  Exton, 
in  Rutland  (circa  1350),  the  work  is  more 
massive,  and  the  top  has  battlements.  Compare 
this  example  with  another  at  Northborough, 
Northumberland,  approximately  the  same  in 
date,    but    richer    by    far   in    detail.     It    is    an 


HEARTH,  FIREPLACE,  CHIMNEY    99 

example  of  Decorated  Gothic,  but  somewhat 
affected  and  meretricious  ;  for  its  gabled  orna- 
ments, with  their  tall  finials,  are  built  on  the 
solid  masonry,  and  may  be  looked  upon  as  un- 
necessary weather-mouldings.  Omit  them,  and 
the  chimney  looks  bolder  and  stronger  (p.  94). 

Some  other  examples  show  the  development 
of  Tudor  chimney-shafts  from  1490  to  1560. 
There  is  one  from  Barton,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
dating  from  1490  ;  its  angles  are  well  managed, 
though  thin  and  sharp,  and  the  moulded  brick- 
work is  pleasant.  Another  example,  at  East 
Basham  Hall,  Norfolk,  is  unusual,  forming 
a  group  of  ten  chimneys,  and  made  entirely 
of  moulded  brick  ornamented  with  various 
patterns  (p.  96). 


I 


CHAPTER  VII 

HENRY  III.  AS  PATRON  OF  THE  HOME         , 

J 

IN  the  thirteenth  century  Gothic  archi- 
tecture had  its  golden  time.  Out  of 
the  stern  bulk  that  Normans  loved,  and 
that  expressed  their  stubborn  and  haughty 
character,  the  Early  English  manner  was 
evolved,  w^ith  its  tall,  ascending  growth,  and 
its  enj-iched  lightness  both  of  effect  and  of 
material  ;  with  its  long,  pointed  windows, 
shaped  like  the  spear-head  of  Ithuriel  ;  with  its 
finer  columns,  clustered  and  banded  together  ; 
its  foliage,  too,  conventional  in  a  new  and 
beautiful  way,  no  longer  recalling  the  acanthus- 
like ornament  used  by  Norman  builders  ;  and, 
again,  with  its  dog-tooth  enrichments,  which 
may  be  found  in  every  detail  of  Early  English 
work — in  pointed  arches,  in  capitals,  corbels, 
string-courses,  shafted  door-jambs,  and  so  forth. 
This  dog-tooth  ornament  ought  to  be  learnt 
by  heart  as  characteristic  of  the  Early  English 
style.  It  appeared  in  late  Norman  mouldings, 
and  sprang  from  those  zigzag  patterns  which 
Norman  architects    adapted    from   Romanesque 

100 


C  c 

<  < 

c  c  , 

c  t 


^ 


HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     loi 

work.  Dog-tooth,  indeed,  is  a  double  zigzag 
often  carved  into  a  four-leaved  flower,  square  in 
shape,  and  with  its  centre  projecting  in  a  point. 
As  a  rule  you  will  find  it  well  framed  in  a  deep 
hollow  moulding,  with  the  flowers  side  by  side, 
and  the  petals  joined  at  their  points,  so  that  a 
decorative  pattern  is  made  by  the  spaces 
between  them.  At  other  times  the  flowers 
are  separated  ;  and  in  rich  suites  of  mouldings 
they  are  repeated  several  times. 

Of  course,  the  transition  from  Norman  to 
Early  English  was  not  rapid  or  startling.  It 
began  towards  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  ; 
and  by  1280,  when  Edward  I.  opened  the  Angel 
Choir  at  Lincoln  Cathedral,  this  style  had 
begun  to  complete  itself  in  a  Decorated  period. 
Progress  was  a  natural  evolution,  without  any 
undue  interference  from  the  personal  ambitions 
of  learned  architects. 

There  was  much  political  turmoil  at  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  this 
was  more  favourable  to  military  work  than  to 
religious  and  domestic  buildings.  Castles  were 
overhauled,  and  manor-houses  were  cast  in  a 
warlike  mould,  that  tried,  in  vain,  like  body- 
armour,  to  give  security  with  comfort.  But 
during  the  long  reign  of  Henry  III.,  from 
1 217  to  1272,  great  things  were  done,  and 
Henry   himself  proved   that    his    sympathy   for 


102  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

home  architecture  was  thorough  and  practical. 
He  gave  orders  with  knowledge  and  decision, 
showing  always  in  a  few  words  that  he  had 
not  only  a  clear  conception  of  his  own  house- 
hold needs,  but  a  taste  in  domestic  art  which 
he  meant  to  gratify.  Henry  HI.  was,  indeed, 
the  first  patron  of  English  homes.  Historians 
do  not  admire  him  as  a  king,  and  certainly 
his  temperament,  like  that  of  Edward  the 
Confessor,  wanted  those  steel-like  qualities 
that  make  great  rulers ;  but  he  was  kind, 
amiable,  and  cultivated,  and  English  home 
life  was  bettered  by  his  example.  Not  a  few 
of  his  improvements  were  followed  by  Edward  I. 
and  other  kings. 

Henry  did  much  to  confirm  his  people  in 
their  passion  for  colours.  He  delighted  in 
polychrome  effects,  his  favourite  one  of  all 
being  gold  stars  on  a  green  background.  He 
talked  of  these  matters  with  an  Italian  artist, 
William  the  Florentine,  who  acted  as  master 
of  the  works  at  Guildford.  Henry's  aim  was 
to  make  life  comfortable,  and  his  castles  left 
much  to  be  desired.  Thus  the  Tower  of  London 
was  a  vast  prison,  so  the  king  hated  it,  and 
tried  to  make  away  with  its  horrid  gloom, 
sending  word  to  the  Constable  that  his  queen's 
chamber  there  was  to  be  painted  with  flowers. 
This  idea  was  original,  and  we   may  follow  it 


I 


HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     103 

in  a  modern  way,  adorning  H.M.S.  Dreadnought 
with  blue  forget-me-nots  and  white  rose-buds. 
Henry,  too,  was  not  pleased  with  his  own 
chamber  at  the  Tower.  Its  drain  was  out  of 
order,  and  his  Majesty  wanted  another  to  be 
made  like  a  hollow  column,  "  as  our  beloved 
servant,  John  of  Ely,  shall  more  fully  tell 
thee." 

It  was  thus  that  Henry  III.  overhauled  his 
castles  and  country  seats,  adding  a  spiral  staircase 
at  Clarendon,  building  an  outside  stair  to  his 
chapel  at  Rochester,  freeing  Westminster  Hall 
from  its  open,  poisonous  gutter,  and  laying  on 
water,  with  the  help  of  Edward  FitzOtho,  his 
architect.  A  hollow  pipe  was  used,  not  thicker 
than  a  quill,  and  through  it  water  flowed  from 
the  conduit  to  the  king's  own  private  rooms. 
And  other  good  things  were  done  with  water. 
Baths  were  put  in  some  palaces,  and  conduits  of 
pure  water  brought  happiness  to  London  citizens, 
who  were  properly  grateful  for  their  king's  in- 
fluence. 

As  to  London  houses,  they  differed  very  little 
from  those  described  in  Chapter  V.,  at  least  till 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Timber 
sheds  and  cabins  were  common  ;  two-storied 
houses  were  still  found  in  the  best  neighbour- 
hoods, like  Cheapside  ;  but  Henry  III.  lifted 
his  eyebrows  with  discontent,  having  ideas  that 


I04  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

came  to  him  in  France.  Paris  buildings  were 
tall  and  stately  ;  and  when  Henry  visited  Paris 
in  1254  he  rode  in  astonishment  through  a  street 
called  La  Greve,  then  down  another  towards 
St.  Germain  Antin,  and  thence  over  a  great 
bridge,  seeing  on  all  sides  fine  mansions,  built 
of  gypsum  (plaster  of  Paris).  Some  had  three 
chambers,  while  others  were  four  floors  and 
more  high  ;  and  fine  windows  were  common 
everywhere,  and  all  were  bright  with  pretty 
women.  Henry  was  delighted.  London  too 
must  have  tall  houses  and  pleasant  windows. 

Did  he  forget,  I  wonder,  that  his  capital,  in 
some  respects,  was  better  than  the  Gay  City  ? 
London  had  a  better  public  spirit  ;  its  drainage 
was  better,  and  its  good  streets  were  generally 
wider  and  better  paved.  Even  low-roofed 
houses  had  one  real  advantage,  not  being  high 
enough  to  interfere  wdth  a  free  circulation  of 
air  and  light,  so  that  London  was  sunned  and 
ventilated. 

To-day  people  do  not  give  thought  enough  to 
the  eff^ect  of  innumerable  tall  buildings  on  public 
health.  Yet  it  is  a  point  worth  attention.  The 
moreyou  think  about  it  the  more  certain  you 
will  be  that  houses  above  a  given  height  ought 
to  pay  a  swinging  tax  to  our  medical  ofiicers  of 
health.  When  streets  are  lined  with  tall  build- 
ings on  both  sides  what  are  they  but  channels 


m 


2      O 


<1  o 

Z  I 

o  ci 

Q  O 


HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     105 

for  keen  draughts  ?  Wind  sweeps  down  them  all 
day  long,  collecting  dust  and  throwing  it  up  in 
clouds  that  rise  to  the  topmost  windows.  This 
means  infection,  not  ventilation,  for  London  dust 
everywhere  is  filled  with  microbes  and  particles 
of  manure.  Twenty-five  years  ago  Mr.  E.  M. 
Barry,  R.A.,  pointed  out  that  street  houses 
were  becoming  too  high,  and  that  this  matter 
was  bad  for  two  reasons,  affecting  the  people's 
health  and  doing  harm  to  the  general  look 
of  London.  Things  are  much  worse  to-day. 
Open  windows  mean  dirty  rooms  everywhere 
in  London.  A  city  without  boulevards  can- 
not afford  to  build  such  tall  streets.  London 
thoroughfares  are  narrow  and  cramped,  very 
different  from  the  spacious  Avenue  Louise  at 
Brussels,  or  the  magnificent  Boulevard  de 
Waterloo.  We  have  nothing  to  compare  with 
these  vast  public  ways,  yet  London  houses  are 
loftier,  as  a  rule,  than  those  in  Brussels. 

But  we  must  go  back  to  Henry  HL,  who 
originated  this  London  mania  for  tall  houses  in 
narrow  streets.  He  was  wrong  in  this  matter, 
but  his  capital,  no  doubt,  with  its  one-storied 
cabins  along  Watling  Street  and  near  London 
Bridge,  looked  poverty-stricken  after  the  four- 
deckers  in  Paris.  We  have  already  seen  (p.  65) 
that  attention  was  given  to  sanitation,  and  to 
the  rain-water  dripping  from  roofs  into  gutters. 


io6  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Refuse  of  every  description  was  carried  away 
by  open  channels,  like  those  in  kitchens  and  in 
great  halls.  Alexander  Nequam  was  in  favour 
of  this  system  during  the  twelfth  century,  while 
Henry  IH.  objected  to  it,  and  some  drains 
underground  were  made  during  his  time. 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  a  growth  of  three 
good  things  in  the  thirteenth  century  :  a  delight 
in  colour,  public  sanitation,  and  personal  clean- 
liness— a  virtue  never  encouraged  by  the  Church. 
Still,  progress  was  an  idea  rather  than  a  fact, 
because  people  as  a  rule  were  careless  and 
indescribably  unclean,  as  Thorold  Rogers  points  i 
out.  Yet  the  appearance  of  baths  and  good 
drains,  even  in  royal  palaces,  was  an  event ; 
it  marked  a  new  era  in  English  home 
architecture. 

A  love  for  colour  was  no  doubt  stimulated 
by  many  Italian  priests,  who  grew  fat  on  English 
benefices.  As  they  had  seen  many  polychrome 
effects  in  their  own  country,  they  were  glad 
to  follow  Henry's  lead,  and  colour  decoration 
spread  all  over  the  halls  and  chambers,  mural 
ornament  becoming  usual  in  all  good  houses. 
Walls  were  panelled  to  a  height  of  about  five 
feet,  leaving  a  space  above  to  be  filled  with  a 
painted  frieze.  Sometimes  the  subject  chosen 
was  merely  a  design  that  imitated  drapery 
folds  ;  but  themes  were  taken  from  the  Gospels, 


HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     107 

from  popular  allegories,  and  from  lives  of  the 
saints.  By  this  means  a  school  of  decorative 
art  grew  up  in  England  under  the  protection 
of  Henry  HI.  Some  members  of  this  school 
were  foreigners,  like  William  the  Florentine 
and  John  of  St.  Omer,  but  English  artists  held 
their  own.  There  was  John  of  Gloucester, 
famed  for  his  statuary  ;  and  William  of 
Gloucester,  a  goldsmith  who  made  a  brass 
figure  for  the  tomb  of  Catharine,  infant 
daughter  of  Henry  IH.  William,  a  monk  of 
Westminster,  painted  for  his  king  the  "  gestes  " 
of  Antioch  ;  other  good  work  was  done  by  an 
official  court  artist,  Walter  by  name  ;  and 
there  was  a  second  Walter,  a  native  of  Col- 
chester, and  sacristan  of  St.  Alban*s,  whom 
Matthew  Paris  wrote  about  in  glowing  terms, 
"  pictor  et  sculptor  incomparabilis."  All  these 
men  were  encouraged  by  the  king,  and  it  is 
likely  that  they  were  influenced  by  conventional 
designs  having  a  Greek  origin. 

Henry  HI.  was  particularly  fond  of  panelling. 
At  his  manor-house  of  Cliff,  for  example,  he 
told  his  agent,  Walter  de  Burgh,  that  the 
queen's  chamber  was  to  be  wainscoted  and 
painted  with  a  history;  and  another  mandate 
directs  the  Sheriff  of  Wiltshire  "  to  wainscot 
the  King's  lower  room,  to  paint  it  of  a  green 
colour,   to   put   a   border  to   it,  and  to  enrich 


io8  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

this  border  with  painted  heads  of  queens  and 
kings/'  Upstairs,  in  Henry's  own  room,  a 
frieze  was  to  tell  the  story  of  St.  Margaret 
Virgin,  accompanied  by  the  four  Evangelists  ; 
while  a  wainscot  below  was  to  be  green,  relieved 
by  gold  stars,  and  having  some  male  and  female 
heads  painted  on  it,  "  with  good  and  exquisite 
colours."  Whatever  the  effect  may  have  been, 
Henry  was  in  earnest.  He  had  a  feeling  for 
home,  a  wish  to  get  rid  of  armour  and  to  take 
his  ease  leisurely  in  comfort. 

This  good  man  was  fastidious  in  all  things 
domestic.  We  read,  for  instance,  how  he  gave 
orders  that  a  room  on  his  ground  floor  at 
Windsor  Castle  was  to  be  "  boarded  like  a 
ship  " — a  suggestive  criticism.  That  room 
had  no  other  flooring  than  the  usual  carpet — 
rushes  in  winter,  green  fodder  in  summer — 
spread  over  the  beaten  earth;  and  when  such 
bad  floors  were  to  be  found  in  Windsor  Castle, 
imagine  what  halls  were  like  in  ordinary  houses 
and  cottages.  Earthen  floors  got  damp  and 
filthy  ;  it  was  a  custom  to  spit  on  the  rushes 
and  to  throw  into  them  the  rinsings  from  glasses 
and  all  litter  from  the  table — bones,  odds  and 
ends  of  vegetables,  &c.  ;  and  yet  rushes  were 
employed  in  halls  as  late  as  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  later  than  that.  Even  private  rooms  were 
generally     rush-covered,     but     ladies    scattered 


HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     109 

flowers  over  the  rushes,  till  at  last — between 
the  reigns  of  Henry  V.  and  Henry  VII. — 
rugs  and  carpets  made  their  way  very  timidly 
into  fashion.  Medieval  lords  and  ladies  put 
little  money  on  their  floors  and  much  on  their 
backs.  It  did  not  occur  to  them  that  dirty 
floors  bred  unclean  habits. 

Henry  III.  was  aware  of  this  fact,  so  he 
encouraged  foreign  craftsmen  to  set  up  their 
homes  at  his  court,  and  among  them  were 
some  makers  of  decorative  paving  tiles.  His 
mind  was  full  of  experimental  ideas.  He 
tried,  for  example,  to  repeat  in  woodwork  an 
eff^ect  which  he  had  seen  done  by  a  tiler,  giving 
orders  that  in  one  of  his  rooms  the  wainscot  was 
to  have  boards  not  only  coloured,  but  "  radi- 
ated " ;  and  this  wish  to  make  one  material 
do  the  work  of  another  was  applied  to  wooden 
arches  and  stone  piers,  which  were  painted  to 
imitate  marble,  as  in  Victoria's  reign  deal  doors 
were  grained  to  imitate  oak.  Of  course,  it  was 
wrong — a  make-believe,  a  sham,  a  forgery. 

Still,  Henry  had  good  ideas  also  in  chamber 
decoration.  For  example,  he  put  "  a  wooden 
spur  on  the  inner  side  of  a  door,  and  some- 
times against  the  wall  of  a  chamber  ;  in  the 
latter  case  it  may  have  been  intended  as  a  sort  of 
canopy  over  the  principal  seat,  and  when  over 
the  doorway  it  was  probably  designed  to  carry 


no  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

drapery,  to  protect  the  room  from  draughts. 
It  must  be  confessed,  however,  that  the  real 
destination  of  this  sort  of  structure  is  un- 
known. .  .  .  Wooden  screens  {escrinia)  on  the 
inner  sides  of  doors,  in  both  halls  and  chambers, 
were  in  use  during  the  latter  part  of  Henry's 
reign.''* 

This  seems  to  prove  that  the  king  tried  to 
get  rid  of  draughts  in  a  practical  and  artistic 
way,  just  as  he  gave  a  more  domestic  air  to 
castles  by  building  around  their  keeps,  in  the 
baileys,  detached  halls,  chambers,  and  other 
out-shoots,  because  castles  were  too  uncomfort- 
able for  household  use.  From  this  innovation 
Edward  I.  borrowed  hints  when  he  built  his 
famous  strongholds,  where  the  hall  seems  to 
have  been  a  separate  apartment,  and  where  many 
chambers  designed  for  different  uses  were  knit 
together  by  a  general  plan.  Under  Henry  III. 
scattered  rooms  were  joined  to  one  another  by 
covered  passages  built  of  wood.  In  one  case  he 
said  that  his  queen  must  walk  with  a  dry  foot 
from  her  chamber  to  chapel — a  pretty  touch  of 
homely  thoughtfulness. 

Windows  also  claimed  Henry's  attention  ; 
and  with  this  we  come  to  the  use  of  glass 
for  domestic  purposes.     It  is  a   subject  worth 

*  Turner   and   Parker's   "Domestic   Architecture   of   the 
Middle  Ages,"  i.  91. 


I  HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     iii 

considering.  Glazed  windows  were  employed  in 
England  by  the  Romans,  as  at  South  Darenth, 
in  Kent  ;  glass  vessels  were  known  to  the 
Saxons  ;  and  in  the  ninth  century  some  church 
windows  were  decorated  with  tinted  panes.  It 
is  possible  that  glass  may  have  been  used  occa- 
sionally in  halls,  but  on  this  question  there  is  no 
written  evidence.  Aubrey  states  that,  apart 
from  churches  and  gentlemen's  houses,  glass 
windows  were  rare  before  the  time  of  Henry 
VIII.,  and  that  among  copyholders  in  Salop, 
Herefordshire,  and  Warwickshire  there  were 
none  as  late  as  the  Civil  Wars.  This  explains 
why  window  openings  were  small.  It  is  usually 
safe  to  judge  a  style  in  domestic  building  by  the 
"wind  eyes,"  as  they  were  called.  The  smaller 
they  are,  the  older  is  the  tradition  which  they 
represent.  Thus  loopholes  in  barns  are  older 
than  the  smallest  windows  in  extant  cottages. 
Round  apertures  in  roofs,  covered  with  the  caul 
of  a  new-born  calf,  were  the  earliest  "wind 
eyes "  among  Norsemen  ;  and  this  may  well  be 
true  of  all  Northern  peoples,  as  cauls  and 
bladders  could  hardly  fail  to  attract  attention  by 
their  transparency.  Roof-holes  in  primitive 
huts  and  halls  were  followed  by  the  clerestory 
windows  of  church  architecture.  When  glass 
panes  were  used  for  home  purposes  they  were 
set    in    movable    casements,    which    could    be 


112  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

taken  down  and  packed  away,  or  carried  from 
manor  to  manor  with  other  household  things  ; 
and  it  is  worth  noting  that  they  had  a  legal 
value.  As  late  as  the  sixteenth  century,  says 
Mr.  Addy,  glass  windows  did  not  pass  to  the 
heir  as  part  of  the  freehold  estate,  but  to  the 
personal  representatives.* 

No  record  speaks  of  these  windows  during 
the  twelfth  century,  and  even  in  Henry  III.'s 
time  glass  was  far  from  common.  Here  and 
there  palace  windows  were  glazed,  but  window 
shutters  and  lattices  were  the  rule,  sometimes 
with  textile  blinds  through  which  light  could 
pass.  At  this  moment  I  am  writing  on  a  grey 
morning  with  my  blinds  down,  and  there's 
enough  light ;  and  this  enables  me  to  under- 
stand why  oiled  linen  was  often  used  instead  of 
glass  even  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century.  It 
was  cheap,  it  served  its  purpose  well  enough, 
and  if  boys  shot  their  arrows  through  it  none 
cared.  Not  one  writer  on  this  question  of  glass 
windows  has  remembered  that,  from  Edward  I.'s 
time  to  Queen  Elizabeth's,  all  English  lads  were 
compelled  by  law  to  practise  archery  ;  and  what 
more  tempting  mark  at  rovers  than  a  glass 
window  ?  It  could  be  broken  from  a  distance 
without  any  one  seeing. 

*  S.  O.  Addy's  "  Evolution  of  the  English  House,"  p.  122. 


\ 


y       >  >  > 


TNTKRIOK  OF  THS   HALI,, 
STOKE-SAY,  SHROPSHIRE. 


Thirteenth  Century, 


See  pages  1 1 4- 1 1 7. 


HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     113 

This  fact  must  have  had  influence  everywhere, 
particularly  in  country  places,  yet  some  writers 
on  architecture  pass  it  by  and  talk  at  random 
about  the  excessive  price  of  glass,  just  as  though 
huge  sums  of  money  were  not  spent  by  nobles 
on  other  household  luxuries,  like  tapestries, 
costumes,  and  travelling  carriages.  Apart  from 
this,  glass  was  not  unduly  expensive.  In 
Edward  I.'s  time  it  was  3^^.  a  foot,  including 
the  glazier's  wage — about  4.S,  4^.  in  modern 
money.  Window  glass  came  from  Flanders, 
and  was  sent  to  English  merchants  in  part 
exchange  for  the  incomparable  English  wool ; 
but  when  it  reached  London  the  difficulty 
was  to  distribute  such  a  fragile  thing  through 
the  country.  Mediaeval  carters  were  by  com- 
mon law  bailees  of  their  goods,  and  liable  to 
the  consignors  for  their  safe  delivery.  This 
fact  is  mentioned  by  Thorold  Rogers,  yet  no 
writer  on  architecture  has  applied  it  to  the 
infrequent  use  of  glass  windows  by  mediasval 
householders.  Why  should  a  carter  try  to 
ruin  himself  by  carrying  glass  at  his  own 
risk  ? 

For  the  rest,  English  craftsmen  did  not  take 
to  glass-work  till  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
then  they  had  very  little  success  in  their 
competition  with  Flemings,  Frenchmen,  and 
Italians.     Table  glass  was  imported  from  Venice 


H 


114  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

even  during  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary, 
English  merchants  sending  models — patterns, 
as  they  were  called — for  Italians  to  work  from. 
Window  glass  in  Henry  III.'s  time  came  from 
Flanders,  and  was  treated  as  we  treat  Dresden 
china.  Much  care  was  taken  to  protect  it, 
stanchions  and  bars  being  put  in  window  open- 
ings, or  a  simple  trelliswork  of  wood.  At 
Stokesay  Castle,  Salop,  a  fortified  manor-house, 
tall  windows  were  only  half  glazed,  their  lower 
parts  being  covered  by  shutters. 

Then  as  regards  the  shapes  in  which 
windows  were  built  during  the  thirteenth 
century.  They  developed  transitional  forms 
of  the  late  Norman  period,  arched  lights  be- 
coming pointed  and  enriched  with  trefoiled 
heads.  At  Chacombe  Priory,  Northants,  win- 
dow openings  are  square  ;  each  one  is  divided 
by  a  bold  central  shaft  octagonal  on  plan,  but 
the  lights  are  pointed  and  trefoiled.  At  other 
places,  and  notably  at  Alnwick  Castle,  North- 
umberland, and  Stokesay  Castle,  Salop,  windows 
with  two  lights  are  divided  also  by  horizontal 
transoms,  and  have  plain  circles  above  their 
trefoiled  arches.  This  effect  is  rich  and  strong, 
above  all  at  Stokesay,  where  many  windows  are 
large  and  beautiful.  Note  in  the  illustrations 
how  their  design  is  carried  out  (pp.  io8  and  112). 
A  transom  is  admirably  placed,  being  somewhat 


HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     115 

below  the  centre  of  the  aperture  ;  both  lights 
are  elegantly  strong  in  line,  and  their  trefoils 
are  not  carved  out  of  the  stone,  but  cusped 
to  the  inner  edge  or  soffit  of  each  pointed 
arch.  The  circle  above  rests  on  the  arches, 
and  a  dripstone  frames  the  window  closely 
and  gives  emphasis  to  its  arrow-headed  form. 
There  are  no  oriel  windows  at  Stokesay, 
but  many  writs  of  Henry  HI.'s  time  refer 
to  oriels  in  connection  with  royal  houses. 
Unluckily,  no  examples  now  remain,  and  we 
cannot  learn  how  they  were  designed  and 
built. 

While  Henry  HI.  ruled  our  home  architec- 
ture window-sills  became  picturesque  indoors, 
and  this  trait  was  developed  from  Norman 
transitional  art.  As  a  rule  a  sill  had  stone 
benches,  a  seat  on  either  side,  with  a  step  into 
the  room  ;  while  at  other  times  the  arrangement 
was  more  finished,  the  sill  having  returned  ends 
and  mouldings.  At  Stokesay,  where  great  taste 
is  shown,  a  large  hall,  measuring  fifty-one  feet  by 
thirty,  has  no  fewer  than  eight  big  windows,  four 
on  the  west  side  and  four  on  the  east  ;  all  have 
seats,  and  this  good  idea  might  be  adapted  by 
modern  architects.  Windows  are  rarely  near 
enough  to  our  ceilings,  so  they  do  not  carry  off 
the  foul  air  as  it  rises.  If  they  were  put  higher 
we  should  benefit  from  a  sanitary  point  of  view. 


ii6  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

and  window-seats  could  be  made  raised  above  a 
room  by  a  step  or  two. 

However,  let  us  go  back  to  Stokesay,  and  note 
how  it  was  designed  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  ground-plan  shows  how  a  long 
range  of  buildings  may  be  put  up  in  a  curved 
form  on  a  courtyard  of  an  oblong  shape.  The 
hall  is  one  story  high,  with  a  fine  open  timber 
roof.  Its  double  collar-beams  are  very  strong, 
and  the  stone  corbels  upon  which  the  arched 
collar-braces  rest  are  large  and  upright,  with 
early  English  mouldings  deeply  cut.  At  the 
north  and  south  ends  the  hall  is  flanked  by  apart- 
ments. The  north  side  has  a  good  cellar,  with 
a  loophole  ;  a  small  tower  juts  out  from  it,  and 
is  built  in  a  moat,  which  is  about  twenty-two  feet 
wide.  Above  this  tower  and  cellar  is  a  second 
story,  having  rooms  of  wood  and  plaster,  con- 
nected with  the  hall  by  a  timber  staircase.  At 
the  south  end  is  a  square  door  with  a  trefoiled 
head  ;  it  leads  to  some  lower  rooms  ;  and  above 
them  we  find  the  solar,  two  tiny  windows  look- 
ing from  it  into  the  hall,  so  that  nothing  may 
go  on  there  without  the  lord's  knowledge. 
These  sentry  windows  were  general  and  very 
useful  during  the  Middle  Ages,  because  a  com- 
mon life  in  halls  required  careful  watching. 
The  solar  at  Stokesay — we  call  it  a  drawing- 
room  in  our  modern  homes — has  lost  much  of 


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HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     117 

its  original  character,  for  its  elaborately  carved 
chimney-piece  belongs  to  Elizabethan  art,  like 
the  gate-house. 

Those  lower  rooms  on  the  south  side,  already 
mentioned,  have  much  interest,  a  passage  leading 
from  them  to  the  great  keep,  a  tow^er  very  un- 
usual in  form,  and  commandingly  designed  and 
built.  It  is  an  irregular  polygon,  and  from 
outside    it  appears    to    be    a    double    octagonal 

I  tower.  There  are  three  stories,  lighted  by 
single  or  double  lancet  windows  ;  the  parapet 
is   battlemented,    and    pierced    with    loopholes. 

r  All  these  apertures  had  shutters.  The  roof  can 
hardly  be  seen,  but  it  is  conical.  Two  circular 
chimneys,  old  as  the  masonry,  are  found  on  the 
south  side.  Below,  indoors,  the  rooms  are 
irregularly  planned,  and  their  windows  are  set 
obliquely  to  the  walls,  proving  how  afraid  men 
used  to  be  of  archers  and  flights  of  barbed 
arrows.  A  staircase  in  the  wall  goes  up  to  the 
second  story,  and  thence  to  the  floor  above, 
where  three  small  rooms  used  to  be.  The  steps 
go  still  higher,  to  the  top  of  the  turret,  where 
there  is — or  where  there  used  to  be — a  small 
closet. 

Little  Wenham  Hall,  Suffolk,  is  another  good 
home  of  Edward  I.'s  time,  dating  from  the 
year  1281.  I  am  able  to  give  two  beautiful 
drawings    of  it    by    William    Twopeny.     It    is 


ii8  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

famed  as  being  the  earliest  known  example  of 
complete  English  brickwork.  Here  and  there 
the  bricks  are  intermingled  with  courses  of  stone 
and  flint  ;  they  vary  much  both  in  colour  and  in 
size,  some  being  no  thicker  than  Roman  tiles, 
while  others  resemble  Flemish  bricks.  Turner 
and  Parker  give  the  following  description  : 

"  The  plan  is  a  parallelogram,  with  a  square 
tower  at  one  angle  :  on  the  outside  the  scroll 
moulding  is  used  as  a  string,  and  it  is  continued 
all  round,  showing  that  the  house  now  is  entire 
as  originally  built  :  at  one  angle,  where  the 
external  staircase  was  originally  placed,  some 
other  building  seems  to  have  been  added  at  a 
later  period,  though  since  removed  :  of  this 
additional  structure  an  Elizabethan  doorway 
remains,  with  an  inscription  built  in  above  it. 
The  ground  room  is  vaulted  with  a  groined  vault 
of  brick,  with  stone  ribs  which  are  merely 
chamfered  ;  they  are  carried  on  semi-octagon 
shafts  with  plainly  moulded  capitals.  The 
windows  of  this  lower  room  are  small  plain 
lancets,  widely  splayed  internally. 

"  The  upper  room  has  a  plain  timber  roof, 
and  the  fireplace  is  blocked  up.  The  windows 
have  seats  in  them  ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  room 
near  the  door  is  a  recess  or  niche  forming  a 
sort  of  cupboard.  Both  house  and  tower  are 
covered   with   flat   leaden    roofs,    having    brick 


HENRY  III.  AND  THE  HOME     119 

battlements  all  round,  with  a  coping  formed  of 
moulded  bricks  or  tiles,  some  of  which  are 
original,  and  others  of  the  Elizabethan  period. 
The  tower  is  a  story  higher  than  the  body  of 
the  house,  and  has  a  similar  battlement  and 
coping  :  the  crenelles,  which  are  at  rather  long 
intervals,  are  narrow,  with  wide  merlons  between 
them.  In  one  corner  of  the  tower  is  a  turret 
with  a  newel  staircase. 

"  On  the  upper  story  of  the  projecting  square 
tower  is  a  chapel,  which  opens  into  the  large 
room  or  hall  at  one  corner.  It  is  a  small 
vaulted  chamber  :  the  east  window  is  of  three 
lights,  with  three  foliated  circles  in  the  head,  of 
Early  English  character  :  the  north  and  south 
windows  are  small  lancets  widely  splayed 
within  :  in  the  east  jamb  of  the  south  window 
is  a  very  good  piscina,  with  a  detached  shaft  at 
the  angle,  the  capital  of  which  has  good  Early 
English  mouldings  :  the  basin  is  destroyed.  On 
the  north  side  of  the  altar-place  is  another  niche, 
like  a  piscina,  but  without  any  basin  ;  it  has  a 
trefoil  head  and  a  bold  scroll  moulding  for  a 
hood  terminated  by  masks.  The  vault  is  of  a 
single  bay,  with  good  ribs,  of  Early  English 
character,  springing  from  corbels,  the  two 
eastern  being  heads,  the  two  western  plain 
tongues." 

Altogether    there   is    nothing   remarkable    in 


120  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  plan,  but  excellent  workmanship  is  to  be 
found  everywhere  ;  and  efforts  to  be  domestic 
as  well  as  defensive  are  aimed  at  tentatively. 
Little  Wenham  Hall  belongs  to  a  time  when 
Englishmen  did  not  wish  to  feel  safe,  but 
carried  into  their  homes  the  same  feeling  of 
insecurity  that  caused  them  to  spend  large  sums 
of  money  on  body  -  armour.  Robert  Kerr, 
writing  on  this  subject  in  1865,  sneered  at  the 
thirteenth-century  house,  its  plan  being  feeble 
and  its  accommodation  scanty.  Yet  Mr.  Kerr 
was  wrong.  Englishmen  were  toughened  by 
their  hard  life  indoors,  though  they  carried 
much  too  far  their  hatred  for  those  refined 
habits  which  Henry  III.  wished  to  make  popular 
with  his  nobles.  Apart  from  this,  cramped 
planning  at  Little  Wenham  Hall  is  not  worse 
than  the  same  thing  in  our  London  flats,  where 
eight  rooms  are  often  squeezed  into  a  surface 
area  just  large  enough  for  five. 


OrSKIKG    FKOU  CHAPEL  TO    HALL 


-^^^fcj 


CHAPiiL  K-STKAKCxi,  LITTLE   WE: 


Thirteenth  Century. 


See  pages  1 1 7- 1 20. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES  IN  RELATION  TO 
OURSELVES 

THE  reign  of  Edward  III.  (1327-77) 
carried  England  a  long  way  forward. 
Serfs  became  copyholders,  town  life 
improved,  trade  and  commerce  increased,  and 
English  soldiers,  returning  home  with  booty 
from  France  and  Spain,  brought  to  their  manor- 
villages  new  ideas  of  comfort  and  independence. 

Among  the  well-to-do  architecture  continued 
the  progress  of  Henry  III.'s  time,  edging  nearer 
and  nearer  to  what  we  ourselves  value  most — 
privacy.  At  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century 
we  find  that  a  wish  to  be  safe  at  home  was 
tempered  by  a  desire  to  separate  family  life  from 
the  retinue  of  armed  retainers.  Detached  apart- 
ments were  built  around  castles,  so  that  ladies 
might  be  private  among  themselves  and  free 
from  the  great  common  hall,  where  dependants 
slept  at  night  and  lived  during  the  day.  Yet 
there  were  men  of  authority  who  objected  to 
this  improvement,  and  among  them  was  Robert 

Grosseteste,  who  became  Bishop  of  Lincoln  in 

121 


122  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

1235,  and  who,  in  some  statutes  for  the  ordering 
of  a  family,  said  : 

"As  muche  as  ye  may,  withoute  peril  of 
sykenes  and  weryneys,  eat  ye  in  the  halle  afore 
youre  meyny  [household],  for  that  schal  be  to 
youre  profyte  and  worschippe/' 

And  this  advice  continued  to  be  given  in 
much  later  times.  Even  in  the  early  days  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  it  was  said,  by  conservative 
Englishmen,  that  "  all  eatinge  in  chambers 
should  be  prohibited,  other  than  such  as  are 
ordinarily  allowed  to  keep  chambers."  But 
English  kings  set  a  different  example.  Henry 
VIL,  for  example,  dined  in  his  bedroom,  with 
a  bishop  on  one  side  and  his  queen  on  the 
other  ;  and  if  the  chamber  was  large  enough 
he  might  ask  a  lord  and  lady  to  dine  with 
him  also. 

These  facts  must  be  kept  in  mind,  because  the 
progress  of  English  home  life  centred  around 
the  common  hall,  and  it  is  clear  that  there 
was  much  opposition  to  any  improvement  that 
separated  a  family  from  its  house-place,  as  a  hall 
was  often  named.  Bishop  Grosseteste  sprang 
from  the  people — was,  indeed,  a  serfs  son — and 
thus  his  attitude  in  this  matter  probably  gave 
the  popular  view.  A  movement  towards  privacy 
cannot  fail  to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  de- 
pendents and  their  superiors,  and  it  was  this,  no 


PALACE,   3T    DAVID'S,   PEMBROKESHIRE. 


ST.  JOHN'S  eoaPlTAL.   NORTHAMPTON. 


Examples  of  Wheel-Windows   in 
Decorated  English   Gothic. 

Fourteenth  Century.      See  page  123. 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES         123 

doubt,  that  Grosseteste  and  his  followers  feared. 
As  long  as  a  lord  dined  with  his  family  in  a 
common  hall  servants  and  retainers  looked  to 
him  as  a  friend,  and  did  not  feel  abased  by  their 
subordinate  positions.  This  gave  rise  to  a  spirit 
of  goodwill,  which  conservative  and  thoughtful 
Englishmen  wished  to  retain  ;  but  side  by  side 
with  this  was  a  determination  to  bring  into 
home  life  a  respect  for  rank  that  would  isolate 
servants  in  the  sharpest  manner  possible. 

Such  was  the  position  of  affairs  during  the 
fourteenth  century.  Conservatism  asked  for  a 
great  increase  of  importance  in  the  common 
room,  and  this  was  granted  even  by  those  who 
proved  in  other  ways  that  their  ideals  were  at 
odds  with  the  old  patriarchal  system.  Halls 
then  attained  a  certain  grandeur  which  has  yet 
to  be  equalled  in  English  architecture.  Lofty 
walls,  beautiful  traceried  windows,  complicated 
roofs  full  of  charm  and  dignity,  carved  screens 
enriched  with  arched  ornament  became  usual  in 
halls,  and  put  domestic  architecture  on  a  level 
with  church  workmanship.  Round  windows 
were  built  in  the  gable-ends  of  halls  during 
Henry  HL's  reign,  but  now  they  grew  large,  and 
were  filled  with  so  much  tracery  that  a  wheel- 
window  became  an  ornament  rather  than  a  giver 
of  light.  This  was  a  mistake,  no  doubt,  but 
the  craftsmanship  was  lovely.     Other  windows 


124  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

were  tall  and  pointed,  with  traceried  heads ; 
each  was  divided  by  a  horizontal  transom,  and 
below  the  transom  carved  stonework  repeated 
the  tracery  that  adorned  the  upper  lights. 

At  the  inner  end  of  a  hall  a  larger  dais  was 
built  than  in  previous  times  ;  there  stood  the 
high  table,  and  behind  it  a  screen  of  rich 
tapestry.  Across  the  hall,  facing  the  high 
table,  was  a  wooden  partition,  called  the  entry, 
or  screens,  containing  a  front  entrance,  a  back 
door,  and  other  doors  to  the  household  offices. 
An  external  porch  protected  the  main  entrance 
from  bad  weather  ;  in  the  screens  was  a  side- 
board and  a  stone  laver,  this  latter  being  a  kind 
of  piscina  where  all  might  wash  themselves  ; 
and  over  the  screen  was  a  minstrels'  gallery. 
Near  the  walls,  on  either  side,  were  tables  for 
guests  and  retainers.  Children  of  the  best 
families  did  service  in  these  vast  rooms.  Every 
knight  had  his  squire,  who  waited  behind  his 
master's  chair  ;  and  even  young  princes  learned 
lessons  of  obedience  in  this  humble  manner. 
But  when  a  feast  was  over,  and  my  lord  retired 
with  his  family  and  guests,  a  hall  floor  became 
a  vast  bed  covered  with  bolsters  and  mattresses, 
so  a  frugal  past  and  a  decorated  present  met 
together. 

The  hall  at  Penshurst,  Kent,  belongs  to  the 
fourteenth  century.     It  has  four  windows,  two 


>  >  >  >  >    ■> 


>     ''Ki     ■>■• 


c     ,',«:' 


C  C    C      C  "^       C     c"^      c 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES  125 

on  either  side  ;  each  has  two  Hghts  with 
quatrefoiled  heads,  and  the  glazed  openings  are 
divided  by  horizontal  bars  of  stone  called  tran- 
soms. On  the  north  side  of  this  hall  is  the 
dais,  raised  one  step  above  the  floor,  and  near 
to  it  is  an  open  archway  into  an  octagonal 
staircase,  which  leads  up  to  other  rooms  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  Hard  by  is  a  small  door 
that  enters  a  vaulted  cellar,  where  a  row  of 
arches  runs  down  the  centre,  and  where  you 
see  an  earlier  type  of  architecture,  dating,  so 
it  is  said,  from  Henry  H.'s  reign.  Opposite 
the  dais,  at  the  south  end,  is  the  screen,  and  the 
minstrels'  gallery,  a  rich  piece  of  woodwork, 
panelled  and  carved  ;  it  has  various  ornaments, 
but  a  bear  and  a  ragged  staff  are  frequently 
repeated. 

Look  up  at  the  roof  now.  It  is  open  to 
the  ridge  ;  its  timberwork  is  fine,  with  collar- 
beams  and  king-posts,  all  well  moulded  ;  and 
notice  those  corbels,  for  they  represent  full- 
length  figures  of  a  grotesque  type  carved  in 
wood.  Again,  there  are  three  rather  small 
windows  in  the  gable-ends  of  this  hall,  neatly 
placed  so  as  to  fit  the  roof,  the  timbers  passing 
between  them. 

As  to  the  floor,  it  is  tiled,  and  in  the  centre 
a  hearth  is  marked  out  with  stonework,  upon 
which    firedogs     stand  ;     and    some    furniture 


126  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

completes  our  sketch.  The  side-tables  are 
interesting,  for  they  are  made  on  the  ancient 
principle  of  boards  and  trestles  ;  these  trestles, 
also,  have  very  solid  legs,  resting  on  feet  which 
are  cruciform  on  plan,  so  that  they  would  bear 
a  great  weight  and  tipsy  roysterers  could  not 
upset  them.  There  are  benches  to  correspond, 
each  with  wide-spreading  feet.  "  The  high 
table  is  different,  being  a  regularly  framed 
table,  with  bulbous  legs,  but  probably  none  of  i 
this  furniture  is  earlier  than  the  time  of  Eliza-  . 
beth  or  James  I."  * 

In  a  picture  of  this  hall  by  Joseph  Nash, 
reproduced  here,  the  details  are  well  given,  and 
a  Christmas  feast  is  represented,  with  that  dra- 
matic feeling  for  history  which  gives  so  much 
value  to  Nash's  lithographs.  Here  are  fourteenth- 
century  life  and  character  ;  but  behind  them,  let 
us  remember,  was  a  movement  which  was  to 
upset  the  old  'order  of  domestic  routine,  with  its 
conamunal  spirit.     (See  the  Frontispiece.) 

This  movement  is  the  next  thing  to  be 
considered.  It  meant,  as  we  have  seen,  a  wish 
to  be  more  private  ;  and  this  natural  desire 
caused  every  new  house  to  be  judged  by  three 
questions  : 

I.  Did  it  give  greater  quietness  ? 

*  "  Domestic  Architecture  of  the  Middle  Ages,"  ii.  279, 
280. 


The  Solar,  Sutton  Courtenay,  Berkshire.     Fourteenth  Centur 


c  c  t     ,  c. 


c  tec 

<  c  t    c    .'  c 

c     c  c    c  /    c 

f         c  c    c        c 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES         127 

2.  Was  it  conveniently  arranged  ? 

3.  Were  the  household  offices  far  enough 
away  from  the  private  rooms  ? 

These  questions  have  been  answered  thousands 
of  times  since  the  fourteenth  century,  and  one 
reply  has  been  wrong,  as  a  rule,  generation  after 
generation.  Very  little  respect  has  been  shown 
for  those  who  have  lived  in  the  service  quarters  ; 
and  to  this  fact  we  owe  that  dislike  for  domestic 
work  which  has  produced  in  our  own  day  the 
Servants*  Revolt.  No  such  thing  was  known 
when  servants  fed  and  slept  in  a  common  hall, 
because  their  lot  then  differed  in  degree,  not  in 
kind,  from  that  of  kings  and  queens  ;  but  when 
a  desire  for  privacy  began  to  separate  them 
from  their  superiors  all  the  snobbishness  in 
human  nature  had  a  chance  to  mark  that  sepa- 
ration in  unkind  ways,  involving  hardships  or 
indignities. 

We  may  take  the  kitchen  as  an  example.  In 
early  times,  when  nearly  all  common  rooms 
were  built  with  timber,  kitchens  were  isolated 
because  they  were  dangerous  to  the  main 
building,  but  when,  during  the  thirteenth  and 
fourteenth  centuries,  many  great  houses  were 
of  stone,  common  sense  demanded  that  kitchens 
should  be  placed  conveniently  near  the  hall,  so 
that  food  might  be  taken  to  table  without  in- 
convenience.     Yet  the  old  custom  was  followed. 


128  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

kitchens  were  detached,  and  sometimes  dishes 
had  to  be  carried  across  a  broad  yard. 

This  error  in  planning  is  all  the  more  curious 
as  kitchens  of  the  fourteenth  century  were  at 
times  very  important  buildings,  like  the  Abbot's 
Kitchen  at  Glastonbury,  which  I  am  able  to  de- 
scribe. It  was  built  of  stone,  probably  by  Abbot 
Chinnock,  between  the  years  1374  and  1420. 
The  plan  was  square  outside  and  octagonal  with- 
in ;  each  corner  had  a  fireplace,  and  the  angles  were 
cut  off  by  four  segmental  arches.  This  kitchen 
was  spanned  by  a  lofty  octagonal  dome,  supported 
by  eight  ribs,  and  covered  externally  by  a  peaked 
stone  roof  of  eight  sides,  forming  a  spire  without 
and  a  dome  within.  There  was  a  high  louvre  in 
two  stages  ;  outside  it  formed  an  octagon  lighted 
by  square  windows,  with  its  own  battlement 
and  spire,  on  which  was  set  a  smaller  octagon 
and  spire,  to  give  a  finish  to  the  building  ;  and 
chimneys  at  each  angle  of  the  base  completed 
the  architecture. 

A  kitchen  of  this  kind  must  have  been  pleasant 
to  work  in  ;  but  a  long  distance  lay  between  it 
and  the  refectory  ;  and  this  not  only  isolated 
the  household  offices,  but  made  it  a  difficult  task 
to  serve  at  table.  The  same  characteristic  is  to 
be  found  in  English  house  plans  to  the  nine- 
teenth century,  when  innumerable  basements 
were  built  in  imitation  of  those  which  England 


q    ^ 

<i   « 

.  ■'^^ 

l-H 

w 

CO 

M 
o 


^ 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES         129 

copied  badly  from  Italian  designs  during  her 
Renaissance  period.  Servants  were  sent  under- 
ground as  low  creatures,  and  breakneck  stair- 
cases had  to  be  climbed  before  they  could  reach 
the  dining-rooms. 

This  was  an  offensive  want  of  tact,  making 
domestic  service  a  reproach  ;  and  its  result  is 
to  be  seen  at  present  in  all  English  cities. 
Thousands  of  basement  houses  are  empty,  and 
no  architect  worth  his  salt  will  build  another, 
except  in  flats,  where  porters  may  be  treated 
with  contempt,  as  they  are  usually  time-expired 
soldiers  who  find  it  hard  to  get  civil  appoint- 
ments. They  cannot  afford  to  strike  with  the 
women  servants,  and  striking  alone  wins  fairness 
in  this  age  of  competition. 

Servants  need  privacy,  just  as  families  do, 
and  this  may  be  given  to  them  without  show- 
ing disrespect  for  their  necessary  help  and 
position.  Architects,  in  their  eagerness  to  shut 
off  the  smell  of  cooking  from  their  houses, 
must  in  future  keep  before  their  minds  the 
ways  in  which  domestic  service  has  been 
slighted  in  house  plans,  age  after  age,  since 
Edward  III.'s  time.  Nothing  is  more  trouble- 
some to-day  in  home  life  than  a  foolish  parade 
of  class  distinction,  because  servants  cannot  get 
away  from  it  like  outdoor  workers,  who  have 
cottages    where    they    can    shape   their    private 


130  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

time  in  freedom.  Servants  indoors  are  servants 
all  day  long,  just  like  soldiers  on  campaign. 
In  such  circumstances  even  small  hardships, 
w^hen  unnecessary,  become  just  causes  of  insub- 
ordination ;  and  the  hardships  v^hich  servants 
have  had  thrust  upon  them  in  English  homes 
since  the  fourteenth  century  have  been  serious, 
not  small.  To-day,  in  all  houses  and  flats  for 
persons  with  small  incomes,  the  service  quarters 
are  cramped  and  bad,  as  though  health  and 
comfort  were  things  that  cooks  and  housemaids 
should  not  wish  to  enjoy.  One  cannot  speak 
too  strongly  on  this  point.  After  studying 
thousands  of  house  plans,  old  and  new,  I  am 
not  surprised  that  domestic  servants  should  rebel 
ai;id  put  on  airs  of  overdressed  independence. 
The  odd  thing  is  that. they  did  not  revolt  long 
ago,  when  the  earliest  basement  houses  sent  them 
to  earth  as  though  they  were  prehistoric,  and 
tried  to  make  them  ashamed  of  their  calling. 
To  find  a  parallel  to  this  folly  we  must  think 
of  our  English  actors,  who  in  nearly  all  theatres, 
past  and  present,  have  been  scandalously  treated 
in  their  dressing-room  accommodation.  Any- 
thing will  do  for  an  actor,  anything  will  do  for 
a  servant  indoors — this  has  long  been  a  rule  with 
hundreds  of  architects. 

This  bad  policy   began   during  the    reign   of 
Edward   III.  ;   but  it  was  only   tentative  then. 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES         131 

because  the  old  communal  life  in  homes  was 
a  thing  which  could  not  be  done  away  with 
all  at  once.  Halls,  little  by  little,  lost  their 
importance,  particularly  during  the  fifteenth 
century,  when  they  ceased  to  be  bedrooms  for 
dependents,  and  when  families  used  them 
mainly  for  great  banquets.  But  the  old  com- 
munal spirit  was  not  dead  ;  it  came  back  at 
Christmas  and  during  harvest  festivals,  so  that 
ancient  ties  between  masters  and  servants  were 
not  entirely  broken  by  the  new  ordering  of 
home  architecture.  This  put  all  the  house- 
hold offices  in  one  wing  and  the  family  rooms 
in  another,  with  many  external  doors  leading 
from  them  into  a  court  or  quadrangle ;  and 
the  rooms,  again,  had  communicating  doors, 
like  those  which  are  common  to-day  in  France. 
English  architects,  on  the  other  hand,  have 
a  very  strong  objection  to  a  suite  of  rooms 
united  by  doors.  They  say  it  is  at  odds  with 
English  ideals  of  privacy  ;  and  in  this  they 
are  at  once  right  and  wrong.  Privacy  is  a 
thing  conditioned  by  circumstances,  and  must 
keep  step  with  the  pressing  needs  of  each 
generation.  At  a  time  when  English  families 
were  large,  and  when  land  for  building  sites 
was  not  expensive,  even  in  London,  privacy 
could  ramble  over  a  good  deal  of  ground  with- 
out  making  a   house    too  costly.     More    space 


132  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

was  often  used  for  passages  than  would  be 
given  to-day  to  a  comfortable  home.  Indeed, 
town  land  is  now  so  valuable  that  houses  have 
either  dwindled  into  small  villas  packed  together 
into  dull,  uniform  streets,  or  grown  into  huge 
flats  where  a  dozen  tenants  live  in  a  single 
block  covering  less  ground  than  Englishmen  ot 
the  fifteenth  century  would  have  thought  enough 
for  a  cook-shop  near  Ludgate  Hill.  Under 
these  conditions  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  com- 
municating doors  are  bad  at  all  times  and  in 
all  cases.  Most  of  us  need  for  rooms  the  space 
which  is  now  occupied  by  passages.  This 
applies  particularly  to  villas  and  to  flats,  where 
corridors  not  only  lessen  the  size  of  all  rooms, 
but  are  difficult  to  keep  sweet.  Air  stagnates 
in  them,  and  nothing  but  a  thorough  draught 
can  displace  it — a  great  trouble  in  winter. 
And  another  thing  that  favours  a  return  to 
rooms  en  suite^  with  communicating  doors,  is 
the  fact  that  an  average  English  family  is 
much  smaller  than  it  used  to  be.  Married 
couples,  when  educated,  no  longer  believe  that 
parental  duties  are  undertaken  by  a  special 
Providence,  and  that  it  is  the  simplest  of  all 
arts  to  give  boys  and  girls  a  calling  by  which 
to  live. 

Yet  architects   and  builders   are  very  slow  to 
recognise  the  changes  which  have  passed  over 


C         C  t      { 


c     ^    c      c 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES  133 

home  life  during  the  last  fifty  years.  They 
talk  and  act  as  though  they  were  in  fifteenth- 
century  England,  and  proud  of  the  newly- 
invented  corridors  and  passage-ways.  However 
cramped  their  sites  may  be,  a  house  must  be 
a  big  one  on  a  tiny  scale,  each  room  with  a 
door  that  opens  on  to  a  landing  or  into  a  passage. 
It  is  forgotten  that  passages  are  admirable  only 
when  they  serve  their  purpose  without  stinting 
room  elsewhere.  The  other  day  I  examined 
a  villa  at  Chiswick,  a  small  place  where  a 
married  couple  might  live  uncomfortably  with 
a  servant  and  a  child  ;  but  its  plan,  please  to 
note,  was  an  imitation  of  the  Adam  houses  in 
Bedford  Square,  a  basement  omitted.  It  is 
odd  indeed  that  this  want  of  humour  is  not 
resented.  No  person  would  read  a  simple  story 
written  in  Milton's  essay  manner  ;  but  diminu- 
tive villas  and  flats,  with  many  rooms  huddled 
into  little  space,  ape  a  style  far  beyond  their 
home  comforts,  and  yet  find  tenants. 

Altogether  we  have  learnt  another  lesson 
from  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 
Rooms  en  suite  are  not  always  bad,  while 
passages  are  harmful  to  health  if  they  make  the 
living-rooms  small.  Town  houses  need  the 
largest  amount  of  air  space  that  architects  can 
manage  to  scheme  into  the  plan  of  each  room. 
When    passages    were    introduced,    during    the 


134  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  it  was  soon 
discovered  that  their  convenience,  even  in  large 
houses,  had  serious  drawbacks ;  servants  collided 
in  them  when  going  to  and  fro  between  the 
kitchen  and  dining-room  ;  and,  again,  they  were 
difficult  to  keep  warm  in  winter.  For  these 
reasons,  among  others,  passages  were  made 
larger,  till  at  last  the  stately  long  galleries  were 
evolved,  giving  a  noble  air  to  Elizabethan  and 
Jacobean  mansions.  Here,  for  example,  is  the 
gallery  at  Lanhydroc,  Cornwall,  admirably  drawn 
by  Joseph  Nash,  and  showing  a  corridor  trans- 
formed into  a  beautiful  room,  carpeted,  well 
lit  by  tall  windows,  hung  with  pictures,  and 
warmed  by  a  good  fireplace.  The  walls  are 
wainscoted,  the  panels  being  small  and  arranged 
in  a  geometrical  pattern  repeated  everywhere. 
There  is  an  arched  plaster  ceiling,  with  rich 
ornamentation  and  heavy  pendants  ;  and  the 
family  life,  introduced  by  Nash,  shows  how 
architects  were  affected  by  splendid  costumes, 
their  decorative  details  harmonising  with  the 
ladies'  ruffs  and  patterned  robes. 

To  show  the  progress  of  house  architecture 
from  outside  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  I  have  chosen  four  illustrations  : 

1.  Markenfield  Hall,  Yorkshire,  near  Ripon, 
dating  from  a.d.  1310. 

2.  Nursted  Court,  Kent — fourteenth  century. 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES         135 

3.  Great  Chalfield,  Wiltshire. 

4.  Oxburgh  Hall,  Norfolk.       ^v'^'^* 
Markenfield    Hall,    Yorkshire,    is    a    fortified 

manor-house  dating  from  the  year  13 10.  It 
belongs  to  the  era  of  Decorated  Gothic,  but 
the  illustration  will  tell  you  that  in  house 
architecture  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century  special  characteristics  began  to  show 
themselves.  Note,  for  example,  the  six  square- 
headed  windows,  all  divided  into  a  couple  of 
lights  by  strong  mullions ;  and  there  are  two 
with  transoms  also.  Now  windows  of  this 
kind  were  not  only  built  in  Tudor  days,  but 
survived  till  a  much  later  time  here  and  there, 
as  in  the  delightful  cottages  so  well  known 
to-day  in  the  Cotswold  district.  There  is,  to 
be  sure,  some  difference  between  them.  Cots- 
wold cottages  have  usually  a  strongly  moulded 
dripstone  above  their  windows  and  doors,  quite 
straight,  in  bold  relief,  and  turned  down  at 
the  sides,  while  at  Markenfield  no  dripstone 
frames  the  head  of  a  square  window.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  two  pointed  windows 
with  good  dripstones  that  repeat  the  springing 
of  each  well-drawn  arch.  In  other  words, 
they  are  curved  like  the  window-heads. 

One  .arched  window  shows  very  clearly  that 
union  between  house  and  church  architecture 
which   Englishmen    loved    in    raedi^sval    time$, 


136  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

It  is  a  traceried  window  with  three  lights,  it 
is  placed  in  the  eastern  end  of  a  chapel,  and 
its  geometrical  tracery  is  Decorated  Gothic  of 
an  early  type.  At  a  later  date,  in  the  Deco- 
rated style,  geometrical  patterns  gave  place  to 
a  flowing  tracery,  but  English  builders  never 
ran  into  the  excessive,  flame-like  ornament  in 
stone  that  produced  the  Flamboyant  style  of 
France  and  Germany. 

Window  tracery  sprang  from  the  stone  shafts 
with  which  Norman  builders  divided  window 
openings  into  lights.  Those  shafts  were  turned 
into  mullions,  and  these  being  too  plain  and 
assertive  for  the  fine  artistic  genius  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  they  were  made  to  ramify 
into  patterned  forms,  so  that  the  upper  parts 
of  arched  windows  might  be  beautiful.  How 
this  was  managed  in  13 10  is  shown  very  well 
by  the  large  window  at  Markenfield. 

You  will  note,  also,  in  our  illustration,  that 
the  walls  have  no  fewer  than  six  buttresses, 
all  with  so  much  strength  that  they  must  be 
accounted  for  by  some  structural  requirements. 
These  were  two  great  roofs  of  open  wood- 
work, one  in  the  chapel  and  the  other  in  the 
hall,  and  their  timbers  thrust  with  great  power 
against  the  side  walls.  A  modern  roof  was 
put  up  in  the  hall  in  1853,  t>ut  some  of  the 
ancient  corbels  existed  at  a  later  date. 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES         137 

One  other  point  must  be  noted  in  the 
external  architecture  at  Markenfield — namely, 
its  horizontal  character.  It  is  difficult  to  see 
the  rcJof,  which  is  nearly  hidden  behind  a  long 
embattled  parapet  having  merlons  crenellated 
with  moulded  copings.  Too  much  attention 
cannot  be  given  to  this  matter,  because  it  proves 
that  Gothic  house  architecture  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fourteenth  century  began  to  develop  a 
horizontal  air  of  its  own,  and  to  appreciate 
this  fact  we  must  recall  to  mind  the  essential 
difference  in  spirit  between  Gothic  and  Classic 
buildings.  Gothic  architecture  has  life  and 
hope  ;  it  seems  to  ascend,  to  spring  up  buoy- 
antly from  the  ground  towards  the  sun's  light, 
like  a  tree ;  while  a  Classic  building  rests 
firmly  on  its  foundation,  all  its  weight  press- 
ing downwards,  adequately  supported  in  every 
part  ;  it  is  made  symmetrical  by  means  of 
horizontal  lines  that  dominate  those  which  are 
upright.  A  Gothic  church  looks  as  though 
it  might  have  been  enchanted  out  of  the  earth, 
while  a  Classic  temple  is  obviously  built. 
Compare  Westminster  Abbey  with  Somerset 
House  or  the  British  Museum,  and  you  will 
see  and  feel  the  immense  opposition  between 
the  rival  geniuses  of  Gothic  and  Classic  archi- 
tecture. The  one  grows  and  aspires,  the  other 
denotes  repose   and    construction.     The    one  is 


138  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

alertly    glorious    in    height,    the    other    calmly 
majestic  in  horizontal  lines. 

And  this  being  so,  the  Gothic  work  at 
Markenfield  Hall  has  a  tendency  that  goes 
away  from  the  spirit  of  Gothic,  forming  a 
horizontalism  distantly  akin  to  that  in  Greek 
and  Roman  buildings.  This  tendency,  too, 
was  not  accidental ;  it  marked  the  beginning 
of  an  English  style  in  house  architecture  that 
produced  the  sweet  low  lines  so  remarkable  in 
Tudor  homes. 

So  Markenfield  is  really  an  important  manor- 
house,  foretelling  what  our  Tudor  period  will  be, 
and  what  builders  will  do  in  the  Cotswolds  after 
the  Tudor  times  have  passed  away.  Nor  is  it 
difficult  to  explain  the  unusual  features.  That 
high  parapet,  for  instance,  by  which  the  roof  is 
hidden,  reminds  us  that  Yorkshire  was  influenced 
by  that  ever-present  fear  of  war  which  the 
Border  country  turned  into  a  Northern  tradition. 
Those  square-headed  windows,  too,  were  not 
employed  for  the  sake  of  novelty,  but  from 
necessity,  the  floor  above,  or  the  roof,  not 
allowing  space  for  an  arch.  Where  there  was 
space  enough  the  windows  were  arched. 

For  the  rest,  at  Markenfield,  as  in  our  own 
houses,  the  most  private  chambers  are  upstairs. 
As  we  prefer  our  drawing-rooms  away  from  the 
front    door,    so   Englishmen    of  the   fourteenth 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES         139 

century  put  their  halls  and  chapels  and  solars 
on  their  upper  storeys.  A  solar  was  a  drawing- 
room,  and  at  Markenfield  it  was  built  out  from 
the  hall  behind  the  great  dais,  upon  which  my 
lord  and  his  family  took  their  meals. 

If  we  now  compare  this  charming  Yorkshire 
house  with  a  Southern  manor,  Nursted  Cgurt, 
Kent,  we  pass  at  once  to  a  more  peaceful  type 
of  fourteenth-century  Gothic,  with  a  high- 
peaked  roof,  pointed  windows  and  doorways, 
two  jolly  gables,  and  a  pretty,  simple  air  of 
romance.  Kent  is  famous  to  this  day  for 
beautiful  old  homes,  built  usually  of  timber  or 
of  flint  with  stone  dressings.  Nursted  Court, 
not  far  from  Gravesend,  was  built  in  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  materials 
being  flints,  with  dressings  of  Caen  stone  for 
the  quoins,  windows,  and  doors.  Every  part 
was  beautifully  finished,  so  our  modern  rest- 
lessness called  it  old-fashioned,  and  destroyed 
a  perfect  bit  of  architecture.  Still,  I  am  able 
to  give  an  illustration  of  the  old  work  (p.  132)  ; 
and  one  showing  the  interior  of  a  delightful  hall 
is  given  by  Turner  and  Parker.  You  cannot 
study  with  too  much  care  the  constructive  art. 

The  gabled  windows  outside  are  different 
from  the  earlier  traceried  window  at  Marken- 
field Hall,  having  feathered  transoms  ;  that  is, 
you    will    find    tracery     below     the    horizontal 


I40  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

bars,  and  it  repeats  the  arched  ornament  to  be 
found  in  the  upper  range  of  lights.  These 
windows  are  very  pleasant  ;  it  was  a  pretty 
idea  to  put  above  them  those  sharp,  triangular 
gables,  which  serve  as  bonnets  to  show  off  their 
beauty. 

At  Great  Chalfield,  Wiltshire,  is  a  manor-house  | 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  now  being  repaired  ;  and 
as  it  has  long  been  neglected — modern  England 
does  not  deserve  to  have  historic  memorials — I 
give  a  picture  drawn  about  sixty  years  ago,  and 
showing  a  noble-looking  home,  such  as  a  modern 
architect  might  be  inspired  by.  Here  is  a 
house  in  which  people  lived  at  their  ease,  undis- 
turbed by  any  thought  of  war  (p.  136).  What 
could  be  better  than  those  two  oriel  windows, 
with  their  tall  elegance  and  their  exquisite 
detail  ?  There  are  gables,  too,  quite  simple 
and  unaffected,  yet  varied  and  full  of  character. 
They  have  a  more  stately  look  than  the  fanci- 
ful gables  which  came  into  vogue  during  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  were  carried  on  by  our 
so-called  Queen  Anne  style,  not  only  before 
that  queen's  time,  but  long  after.  J 

Step-gables,  it  is  true,  may  be  found  in 
English  Gothic  work  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
when  they  were  probably  suggested  by  the 
common  use  of  battlemented  parapets  for  large 
country    houses  ;  but   the    finest   Gothic    gables 


The  Gatehouse,  Oxburgh  Hall,  Norfolk. 

Perpendicular  Gothic.  See  page  142. 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES  141 

are  not  broken  by  corbie-steps  nor  twisted  into 
curves ;  they  have  simple  outlines,  like  those  at 
Great  Chalfield.  Their  proportions  vary  a  good 
deal,  being  regulated  by  the  differing  slope  of 
roofs.  In  the  Norman  style,  for  example,  the 
angle  formed  by  their  apex  is  seldom  much 
more  acute  than  a  right  angle,  while  in  Early 
English  work  it  is  usually  an  equilateral  triangle. 
This  applies,  at  least  in  many  cases,  to  later 
'  Gothic  gables,  but  these  are  usually  lower  than 
thirteenth-century  examples.  Moulded  copings 
are  frequently  employed,  sometimes  with  an 
additional  set  of  mouldings  below  them  ;  and 
crockets  may  run  up  the  coping,  or  a  finial  be 
seen  on  the  gable's  point.  There  seems  to 
have  been  little  change  in  the  general  character 
of  gables  from  the  thirteenth  century  to  the 
making  of  the  first  corbie-steps.  Mouldings 
differed,  no  doubt,  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  Gothic  architecture ;  and  in  the 
Decorated  and  Perpendicular  styles,  forming  the 
subject  of  this  chapter,  gables  are  at  times  sur- 
mounted by  a  parapet,  either  panelled,  pierced, 
or  battlemented.  Also,  when  the  covering  of  a 
roof  extends  over  a  gabled  wall,  and  projects  in 
front,  as  in  timber  houses,  a  barge-board  is  a 
common  ornament,  often  very  beautifully  carved 
and  with  a  finial  at  the  top,  and  occasionally 
with  pendants  at  the  barge-board's  lower  ends. 


2-^' 


142  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

The  gables  at  Great  Chalfield  have  finials 
or  hip-knobs,  ornaments  that  vary  much  in 
mediaeval  design.  Here  the  hip-knobs  are 
heraldic  animals,  rampant  ;  and  in  all  cases 
they  serve  a  purpose  entirely  in  accord  with 
the  spirit  of  Gothic  architecture,  adding  to  a 
gable's  height  and  asking  us  to  look  upv^ard. 

One  characteristic  in  this  manor-house  at 
Great  Chalfield  proves  that  the  masons  did  their 
work  when  the  Perpendicular  style  of  English 
Gothic  was  near  to  its  Tudor  period.  Arched 
shapes  are  rounded  and  depressed.  Look  at  the 
doorway,  for  example,  and  compare  each  window 
with  those  pointed  specimens  which  we  have 
already  examined.  Dripstones,  again,  repeat 
the  flattened  curves  ;  but  the  roof  here  is  more 
prominent  than  in  typical  Tudor  houses,  where 
it  is  often  so  low  as  to  be  hidden  from  view, 
sometimes  by  a  parapet,  and  sometimes  by 
many  gables. 

Oxburgh  Hall,  Norfolk,  belongs  to  the  reign 
of-EdwarcLjy.  (1461-83).  In  style  it  is  late 
■^^Jeependicular,  and  its  gate-house  has  a  noble  air. 
Here  is  a  splendid  example  of  English  brick- 
work. As  to  the  architecture,  a  certain  parade 
of  military  details  may  be  seen,  but  very  dif- 
ferent from  that  in  earlier  castellated  houses. 
Ornament  is  the  purpose  served  at  Oxburgh  by 
warlike  memories  of  older  times  and  customs  ; 


LATER  GOTHIC  HOMES  143 

and  so  we   get  a  defended   home,   not  a  castle 
armed  for  mischief. 

This  gate-house  rises  to  a  great  height,  and 
our  illustration  shows  two  octagonal  turrets  that 
ascend  a  good  way  above  the  battlements.  They 
are  covered  with  a  panelling  of  brick,  and  the 
battlements  are  broken  into  corbie-steps,  as  in 
the  gateway  of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge.  There 
is  a  high  door  with  a  flattened  arch  ;  and  note 
how  it  is  flanked  by  two  oriel  windows,  very 
tall  and  slender,  that  rise  from  the  ground,  and 
look  not  unlike  turrets.  They  have  narrow, 
pointed  lights  grouped  in  threes,  and  marking 
three  stages  in  their  architecture.  Each  light 
is  boldly  framed  at  top  by  a  label  or  dripstone, 
not  arched,  but  horizontal,  and  turned  down  at 
the  sides.  This  combination  of  square  label- 
mouldings  with  arched  window-heads  should  be 
noted  as  a  characteristic  of  Perpendicular  work, 
the  most  English  and  national  form  of  Gothic. 


CHAPTER   IX 
LATE  GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES 

WE  have  already  studied  two  houses 
built  in  the  Perpendicular  style  of 
Gothic— Oxburgh  Hall,  Norfolk, 
and  a  beautiful  manor-house  at  Great  Chalfield, 
Wiltshire  ;  but  something  more  must  be  said 
about  this  very  English  form  of  Gothic,  because 
our  Tudor  houses  owe  to  it  all  their  best 
qualities.  Tudor  architecture  is  said  to  begin 
with  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.,  in  1485  ;  that 
is,  a  distinction  may  then  be  made  between  it 
and  its  forerunner,  the  so-called  Perpendicular 
style  ;  and  this  distinction  arises  from  the  fact 
that  builders  began  to  be  influenced  a  little 
by  new  principles  of  design  coming  from 
Italy. 

When  did  the  Perpendicular  style  first  begin 
to  show  itself?  The  year  1352  has  been  chosen 
as  a  good  approximate  date,  because  at  that 
time  a  church  was  founded  at  Edington,  Wilt- 
shire, from  which  students  have  learnt  when 
the  Second  Pointed  style  of  Gothic,  known  as 

Decorated  English,  began  its  transition  into  the 

144 


PART    Oif   A    TIMBBK    HODSE, 


DUIJSTEE    SOLjEKSETSHIRR. 


Tudor  Timber  Work,  Reign  of  Henry  VII.      See  fage  146, 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    145 

Perpendicular  manner,  so  called.  This  transi- 
tion was  almost  completed  when  Richard  II. 
came  to  the  throne.  During  his  reign  (1377- 
1399)  some  buildings  were  no  doubt  put 
up  in  the  Decorated  style  ;  but  William  of 
Wykeham  belonged  to  this  period,  and  his 
works  have  a  very  evident  Perpendicular 
character,  their  tracery  being  arranged  in  up- 
right lines. 

When  England  went  away  from  her  Deco- 
rated Gothic  and  evolved  a  new  and  severe 
style  she  expressed  her  dislike  for  too  much 
ornamentation,  like  that  which  gave  France 
and  Germany  their  flamboyant  period  of  Gothic. 
Here  stone  was  treated  as  a  pliant  material  in 
which  to  form  waved  lines,  and  contorted 
curves,  and  flame-like  patterns,  for  architects  and 
builders  forgot  that  stone  was  unlike  modelling- 
wax.  Now  the  Decorated  style  in  England 
was  subject  to  the  same  debasement,  as  there 
is  nothing  more  dangerous  in  art  than  a  fondness 
for  ornament  and  patterns.  In  our  own  time, 
for  example,  William  Morris  used  pattern 
wherever  it  could  be  put,  with  the  result  that 
it  became  toujours  perdrix  and  wearisome. 
Grinling  Gibbons,  too,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  misused  his  great  talent  as  a  wood- 
carver,  forgetting  that  ornament  had  nothing 
to  do  with    a  painter's  realistic   methods  ;   and 

K 


\ 


146  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  principle  here  involved  is  that  conven- 
tional designs,  whether  in  wood  and  stone 
or  on  paper  and  textile  fabrics,  are  almost 
certain  to  become  too  ornate  and  realistic, 
because  of  the  pleasure  that  craftsmen  take  in 
doing  them. 

Our  last  form  of  Gothic  accepted  this  prin- 
ciple as  a  guide,  and  brought  into  vogue 
severity  of  treatment  that  prevented  loosenei 
and  contortion.  It  declined  to  look  upon 
piercings  as  the  main  features  in  tracery  ;  here 
^bars  of  wood  and  stone  became  predominant, 
and  were  made  straight  in  obedience  to  com- 
mon sense.  As  an  example  I  give  a  beautiful 
illustration  showing  a  timber  house  that  used  to 
be  at  Dunster,  in  Somersetshire,  and  representing 
our  Tudor  style  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. 
There  are  two  rows  of  windows,  and  between 
them  an  arcaded  panelling.  The  windows  are 
very  interesting,  because  they  show  one  specij 
use  of  strong,  plain  mullions.  If  these  mullioni 
were  less  prominent  the  window  openings  would  ! 
seem  too  large  ;  it  is  they  that  unite  a  large 
surface  of  glass  to  the  surrounding  wall  fp.  140). 
To  appreciate  this  we  must  remember  that  in 
earlier  times  glass  was  not  often  used  by  house- 
holders, so  windows  were  small  ;  but  when 
glass  became  as  common  among  the  well-to-do 
as  oiled  linen  was   in  the   poor   man's  house   a 


re 

i 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    147 

fashion  for  large  windows  sprang  up,  and  it 
threatened  the  structural  look  of  houses.  Many 
a  wall  would  have  been  a  thing  of  glass  if 
mullions  and  transoms  had  not  been  used  with 
judgment. 

Here  are  two  other  illustrations  to  make  this 
point  quite  clear.  One  dates  from  Henry  VHI.'s 
time,  and  represents  the  ruins  of  Cowdray  House, 
Sussex,  a  country  seat  that  retained  as  a  decora- 
tion the  battlemented  parapet  necessary  in  early 
castles  and  fortified  houses.  The  chapel  windows 
have  upright  tracery.  Each  has  two  mullions 
and  two  transoms,  and  the  spaces  formed  by 
their  intersection  are  arched  and  feathered.  This, 
you  will  note,  ornaments  the  bars  of  stone  ;  it 
does  not  twist  them  into  curves.  Remark,  too, 
how  the  oriels  are  treated.  They  rise  from 
ground  to  roof,  and  in  one  no  fewer  than  sixty 
arched  lights  are  grouped  into  six  stages,  making 
a  trelHsed  masonry  that  binds  the  window  to  its 
framework  of  wall  (Plate  31,  page  146). 

Compare  all  this  with  the  second  illustration, 
a  fine  old  inn  of  Edwards  IV. *s  time,  built  at 
Glastonbury  for  pilgrims,  and  having  about  it 
an  air  of  church  dignity.  Yet  the  main  charac- 
teristics are  the  same.  There  is  a  battlemented 
parapet ;  mullions  and  transoms  form  strong 
portions  of  the  walls  in  a  many-windowed  house  ; 
and  there  is  also  a  doorway  having  a  depressed, 


148  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

flattened  arch,  but  with  square  mouldings 
above  its  head,  forming  a  spandrel  on  each 
side  over  the  arch  (Plate  32).  These  things 
are  all  very  typical  of  Perpendicular  and  Tudor 
workmanship. 

Although  it  is  a  custom  to  speak  of  these 
styles  as  Perpendicular,  we  must  keep  in  mind 
the  fact  that  upright  lines  are  not  their  chief 
and  distinguishing  characteristic.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  have  a  very  marked  leaning  towards 
horizontal  effects.  This,  indeed,  may  be  looked 
upon  as  a  distinguishing  trait.  Many  old  Gothic 
features,  not  only  usual  in  earlier  English  work, 
but  emphasised  by  Frenchmen  during  the  fif- 
teenth century,  grow  unfamiliar  in  our  so-called 
Perpendicular  style.  Belfries,  for  example,  ceas- 
ing to  be  like  spires,  become  square  towers, 
finished  at  their  tops  with  level  cornices  and 
parapets.  Depressed  arches  are  common,  and 
window-mouldings  are  straightened  into  cornices 
and  graced  with  filigree-like  battlements.  Roofs 
no  longer  attract  us  by  their  steep  pitch.  In- 
stead of  rising  to  meet  the  rain  and  snow,  like 
umbrellas,  they  hide  themselves  behind  parapets 
or  gables  ;  and  sometimes  they  are  as  flat  as  in 
the  Italianised  English  houses  of  much  later 
times,  when  Palladio  (1518--80)  and  his  research 
threw  a  spell  over  English  architects,  causing 
them  to  adopt  those  principles  of  architectural 


:>> 


\ 


^"UlQlj;s^~ 


IFHRaE    TM.K.   GT.A^T^^'NFrniY,    SOMEUSETSHIRK 


Perpendicular  Gothic,  reign  of  Edward  IV.      See  pa^es  147  and  I48. 


/ 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    149 

design  which  ancient  Rome  had  borrowed  from 
Greece  and  Etrusca. 

The  ground  idea  of  Classic  architecture  is 
horizontal  weight  adequately  upheld,  and  it  is 
hard  to  see  why  in  England  a  Roman  form  of 
horizontalism  should  be  better  than  our  own 
■  national  form,  produced  by  the  last  movement  in 
English  Gothic.  Beyond  doubt  there  was  no 
need  at  all  in  England  for  those  ideals  of  style 
that  Palladio  collected  from  the  ruins  of  ancient 
Rome.  Tudor  houses  and  earlier  types  of  so- 
called  Perpendicular  work  are  sufficiently  hori- 
zontal ;  they  have  dignity  and  charm,  and  are 
admirably  suited  for  all  purposes  of  home  life, 
whether  in  a  cottage  or  in  those  stately  buildings 
that  Wolsey  and  Henry  VHI.  put  up  at  Hamp- 
ton Court.  The  plum-coloured  bricks  are  de- 
lightful, and  there  is  a  true  sense  of  proportion, 
and  the  work  as  a  whole  is  an  expression  of 
English  character  and  taste. 

Mr.  J.  J.  Stevenson  says  with  truth  that  our 
Perpendicular  style,  by  its  common  sense  and 
severity,  saved  the  last  period  of  English  Gothic 
from  the  looseness  and  degradation  which  in 
other  countries  marked  a  striving  after  new  sen- 
sations along  mediaeval  lines.  Higher  praise 
than  this  would  be  given  now,  no  doubt,  if  the 
Tudor  manner  had  been  carried  on  and  developed. 
We   see  in   the   Cotswold    houses   what   village 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    151 

passes  from  structural  things  to  details  of  furni- 
ture, and  thence  to  the  costumes  worn  by  men 
and  women.  Too  much  praise  can  never  be 
given  to  this  orchestration  of  style  throughout 
a  home. 

Yet  English  architects  went  away  from  their 
Tudor  homeliness  and  their  Elizabethan  romance. 
Possessed  by  the  spirit  of  the  Renaissance,  they 
wished  to  build  in  styles  copied  from  dead 
types  of  society.  Even  men  of  great  genius, 
like  Inigo  Jones  and  Sir  Christopher  Wren, 
helped  to  import  a  new  architecture,  discard- 
ing a  native  one  sanctified  by  long  use  and  by 
splendid  memories  and  achievements.  Wren, 
who  died  in  1723,  said  one  thing  and  did 
another  at  odds  with  it,  for  he  believed,  cer- 
tainly with  justice,  that  "  building  ought  to 
have  the  attribute  of  eternal,  and  is  therefore 
the  only  thing  incapable  of  new  fashions." 
This  principle  ought  to  have  made  him  a 
friend  to  English  Gothic,  with  its  glorious 
history  ;  yet  he  accepted  the  authority  of 
Rome's  Classic  orders,  and  helped  to  bring  in 
new  fashions. 

One  writer  protested  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century — Alexander  Pope.  Lord 
Burlington  had  just  published  some  designs  by 
Inigo  Jones,  and  Palladio's  drawings  of  the 
"  Antiquities  of  Rome."     This  gave  delight  to 


152  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

many  architects  ;  but  Pope  shook  his  head,  fail- 
ing to  see  why  he  should  be  proud  to  catch 
cold  at  a  Venetian  door  in  England  : 

*Tis  very  fine,    . 
But  where  d*ye  sleep,  and  where  d'ye  dine  ? 
I  find  by  all  you  have  been  telling 
That  'tis  a  house,  but  not  a  dwelling. 

This  good  sense  was  written  to  Burlington, 
upon  whom  it  was  wasted.  Pope  went  on 
thus  : 

You  show  us,  Rome  was  glorious,  not  profuse, 
And  pompous  buildings  once  were  things  of  use. 
Yet  shall,  my  lord,  your  just,  your  noble  rules. 
Fill  half  the  land  with  imitating  fools  ; 
Who  random  drawings  from  your  sheets  shall  take. 
And  of  one  beauty  many  blunders  make. 

And  all  this  took  place.  English  country 
mansions  were  turned  into  Palladian  hotels,  vast, 
pompous,  uncomfortable,  each  one  a  fortune  to 
build  and  a  large  income  to  keep  in  repair. 
Unlucky  is  the  man  who  inherits  a  home  of 
this  un-English  kind.  It  needs  so  much  money 
that  its  owner  may  be  forced  to  turn  away 
from  our  own  countrywomen  and  to  marry  a 
foreign  heiress.  This  has  happened  several 
times. 

Altogether  it  is  difficult  to  see  what  any 
one  gained  by  following  the  Renaissance.      St. 


'',''?'%' 
.'T',? '? 


ec      c    c 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    153 

Paul's  Cathedral  is  not  better  than  the  English 
Gothic  churches  which  it  attempted  to  surpass  ; 
and  the  most  comfortable  homes  in  a  Classic 
style,  like  those  built  by  Robert  Adam  and  his 
brother,  do  not  excel  many  a  house  built  during 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  pre-Renaissance  homes  have  a 
permanently  national  interest. 

Very  often  they  seem  to  be  contemporary 
with  our  own  time.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a 
cottage  hospital  built  at  Saffron  Walden,  Essex, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Could  anything  be  more  charmingly  simple  ? 
And  what  is  there  here  that  would  look  old- 
fashioned  to-day  in  a  country  town  ?  There 
are  four  delightful  oriels,  a  gable  tall  and  plain, 
and  a  jolly  contrast  between  weather-tinted 
plaster  and  good  oak  timberwork.  Our  own 
cottage  hospitals  do  not  surprise  us  by  their 
artistic  merit  :  it  is  not  often  that  they  have 
charm,  like  their  nurses  ;  while  this  Tudor 
building  has  grace,  beauty,  and  a  modest  dis- 
tinction  (Plate  33,  facing  page   150). 

Or  let  us  take  a  glance  at  a  panelled  room. 
There  is  one  at  Thame  Park,  in  Oxfordshire,  and 
it  shows  how  walls  and  ceilings  were  treated 
during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  At  that  time 
the  most  common  pattern  for  a  wainscot  was  an 
imitation  of  folded  linen  ;   that  is,  panels  were 


154  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

grooved  and  moulded  into  upright  lines  that 
resembled  folds.  This  ornament  has  come  to  be 
known  as  the  "linen  pattern,"  and  it  abounds 
everywhere  in  houses  of  this  period.  Another 
custom  was  to  put  above  the  wainscot  a  frieze 
of  moulded  plaster,  called  pargetting  ;  it  often 
took  the  place  of  tapestry,  above  all  when 
a  room  was  low  and  gave  little  space  between 
the  wainscot  and  ceiling.  Of  this  decoration 
the  room  at  Thame  Park  is  a  good  example  ; 
and  the  ceiling  is  in  better  taste  than  was 
common  at  a  later  date. 

Compton  Wynyates,  Warwickshire,  is  another 
famous  Tudor  mansion.  A  part  of  it  was  rebuilt 
or  much  altered  during  Queen  Anne's  reign, 
but  the  rest  dates  from  the  year  1520,  when 
Sir  William  Compton  got  a  licence  from 
Henry  VHI.  to  enclose  a  park  two  thousand 
acres  in  extent,  fortunate  man,  and  to  take  into 
custody  the  castle  of  Fulbroke,  from  the  ruins  ot 
which  some  materials  were  obtained  for  the  new 
house.  The  buildings  enclose  an  open  quad- 
rangle, and  there  are  windows  on  all  sides, 
various  and  good.  In  most  cases  transoms  are 
not  used,  and  bold  muUions  turn  each  aperture 
into  three  or  four  lights,  with  a  strong  dripstone 
framing  the  head  closely  in  a  horizontal  manner, 
and  carried  for  some  distance  along  the  sides. 
Some    lights    have    arched    and    trefoiled    heads 


Pi    d 


P  3 

^  ^' 

I— t  a, 

o  ^ 

o 
o 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    155 

within  their  square  mouldings  ;  and  this 
characteristic  is  found  in  the  doorways,  where 
leaf-shaped  openings  are  contrasted  with  hori- 
zontal labels  and  lintels,  close-set  and  firmly 
cut.  In  the  hall  is  a  very  beautiful  bay- 
window,  polygonal  on  plan,  rising  from  the 
ground  to  the  roof ;  it  is  crowned  with  battle- 
ments, enriched  with  panels  of  arched  tracery, 
and  divided  by  mullions  and  transoms  into 
sixteen  pointed  lights,  all  simple  and  well 
drawn.  Bay-windows  do  not  appear  to  have 
been  used  earlier  than  the  Perpendicular  style, 
when  they  became  a  frequent  attraction  at  the 
dais  end  of  halls ;  the  earliest  shapes  were 
rectangular  and  polygonal  ;  and  so  we  must 
remember  that  they  are  of  later  date  when  their 
form  is  semicircular. 

The  porch,  again,  not  seen  in  our  illustration, 
has  this  attractive  opposition  between  arched 
and  horizontal  lines  ;  and  above  the  porch  are 
the  arms  of  Henry  VIII.,  with  that  king's 
badges,  a  rose  and  a  crown,  with  a  greyhound 
and  griffin  for  supporters. 

There  is  an  oriel  in  each  gable,  and  the 
barge-boards  are  ornamented  with  half-circles 
that  intersect,  and  with  trefoils  in  the  open 
spaces.  There  are  many  fine  chimneys  of 
moulded  brick,  variously  decorative,  and  their 
height  is  a    thing    to    be    noticed.     Such    lofty 


156  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

chimney-shafts     are     very     useful,    as    well    as 
picturesque. 

Then,  as  to  the  interior,  there  is  a  noble  hall, 
panelled,  and  with  an  open-timber  roof.  The 
wainscot,  illustrated  in  Nash's  "  Mansions," 
has  great  interest,  for  it  is  like  a  series  of 
mullioned  windows,  and  the  recessed  panels 
are  carved  into  linen  folds  as  at  Thame  Park. 
What  was  the  origin  of  this  pattern  ?  May 
it  not  be  traced  back  to  those  painted  draperies 
with  which  frieze  ornaments  were  made  during 
the  reign  of  Henry  HI.? 

However  that  may  be,  some  other  patterns 
were  used  in  Tudor  wainscots,  often  mixed 
with  Italian  details ;  and  fanciful  heads,  set 
in  a  frame  of  wreaths,  were  frequently  carved 
in  high  relief  along  the  upper  panels  of  a  room. 
At  a  later  time,  when  the  sixteenth  century 
became  Shakespearian,  plainer  wainscots  were 
liked,  sometimes  gilded  here  and  there,  and 
sometimes  with  painted  arabesques. 

But  there  are  writers  who  complain  of  the 
joiner's  work,  and  say  it  is  far  inferior  to  our 
own.  Tastes  differ,  of  course,  but  highly-finished 
joinery  has  one  drawback  in  a  panelled  room — 
it  looks  too  polished  and  too  neat ;  it  needs 
those  tool-marks  which  give  "  accident  "  and 
texture  to  less  pampered  craftsmanship.  It  is 
so  easy  to  spoil  wood  by  giving  it  a  surface  too 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    157 

uniform  and  trim.  Tooled  inequalities  are  like 
brush-marks  in  good  painting,  and  trained  eyes 
prefer  them  to  smoothness  and  varnish.  To-day 
most  furniture  is  ruined  by  a  wish  to  hide  all 
evidence  of  tool-and-craft  labour.  Brown  var- 
nishes, often  as  thick  as  treacle,  are  spread  over 
beautiful  woods,  turning  them  into  mirrors,  and 
women  are  constantly  in  a  panic  lest  their  tables 
should  be  marked  by  hot  plates  or  scratched 
when  the  maid  dusts  them.  This  furniture  is 
like  a  tragedy  in  many  homes.  Some  harm  is 
done  to  it  every  day  ;  then  there  are  scenes  with 
this  person  or  that,  long  conversations  during 
meals,  and  very  often  a  workman  is  sent  for  and 
another  layer  of  varnish  is  put  on. 

Tudor  work  did  not  err  in  this  absurd  way. 
It  had  defects,  of  course,  above  all  in  figure 
sculpture  ;  but  it  was  large  in  style,  full  of 
manliness,  and  racy  of  the  soil.  The  Great  Hall 
at  Hampton  Court  is  a  magnificent  specimen, 
and  we  owe  it  to  Henry  VIII.,  not  to  Wolsey,  as 
many  persons  believe.  It  glows  with  colour,  and 
is  in  all  respects  in  keeping  with  the  splendid 
ceremonies  for  which  Henry  used  it,  as  when 
Catherine  Parr  was  proclaimed  queen,  July  12, 
1543.  This  hall  was  begun  after  Wolsey's  death, 
and  was  finished  by  the  year  1536,  when  Jane 
Seymour  was  queen.  The  work  was  hastened, 
craftsmen    giving    "  theyr    howre     tymes    and 


158  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

drynkyng  tymes  for  the  hastye  expedicion  of  ye 
same  '*  ;  and  many  a  tallow  candle  was  burnt  by 
them  "  in  the  nyghte  tymes."  Yet  there  was 
no  evidence  of  this  hurry  when  the  hall  was 
brought  to  completion.  Ernest  Law,  in  his 
writings  on  this  palace,  draws  a  comparison 
between  the  hall  at  Hampton  Court  and  the  one 
at  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  which  is  remarkably 
like  this,  was  built  a  few  years  before,  and 
probably  by  the  same  architect.  There  is  ^Iso 
an  interesting  contrast  between  their  dimensions. 
At  Hampton  Court  the  length  is  106  feet  by 
40  feet  wide  and  60  feet  high  ;  while  at  Christ 
Church,  Oxford,  the  hall  is  eight  feet  longer,  just 
equal  in  width,  but  eight  feet  less  in  height,  so 
there  is  little  difference  between  them. 

The  illustration  by  Joseph  Nash  does  justice 
to  the  Perpendicular  windows  and  to  the  intri- 
cate roof.  But  there  is  a  mistake  in  history. 
Wolsey  is  introduced  ;  and  Hampton  Court,  so 
far  as  this  hall  is  concerned,  has  little  connection 
with  cardinals  or  with  priests.  Henry  VHL 
employed  it  for  State  ceremonies,  as  when 
Francis  Gonzaga,  Viceroy  of  Sicily,  was  enter- 
tained there,  Christmas  1 543  ;  or  for  dancing 
with  Jane  Seymour  and  Catherine  Howard  ;  or, 
again,  for  banquets,  and  mummings,  and  masques. 
In  later  times  plays  were  acted  here,  and  there 
is  evidence  to  show  that  the  company  of  actors 


J  >c  >    1 '  ' 


-'-^  .:c^5^ 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    159 

to  which  Shakespeare  belonged  gave  several  per- 
formances in  this  hall  during  the  early  years  of 
James  I.  Mr.  Law,  speaking  of  the  roof,  pays 
a  just  tribute  to  its  beautiful  construction,  but 
believes  that  the  roof  in  Westminster  Hall  is 
grander  and  more  imposing,  while  those  at 
Crosby  Hall  and  Eltham  Palace  are  purer  in 
taste.  On  the  other  hand,  they  have  not  the 
elaborate  and  rich  workmanship  that  gives 
splendour  to  King  Henry's  roof. 

But  these  comparisons  are  always  unjust.  As 
a  rule  they  imply  defects  when  their  real  pur- 
pose is  to  point  out  characteristics  ;  and  no  two 
works  of  art  by  different  men  and  of  different 
types  can  be  sufficiently  alike  to  justify  a  com- 
parison. The  roof  at  Crosby  Hall  is  certainly 
pure  in  taste,  but  there  is  nothing  amiss  on  that 
score  at  Hampton  Court,  where  a  different  effect 
was  aimed  at  with  infinite  care  and  success.* 

Again,  there  is  much  variety  in  Tudor  work 
as  well  as  much  vigour  and  splendour.  This 
may  be  seen  very  well  in  the  timbered  houses, 
as  in  Little  Moreton  Hall,  Cheshire.  This 
house  dates  from  1559,  the  second  year  of 
Elizabeth's  reign,  but  the  exterior  is  not  transi- 

*  Crosby  Hall  has  been  the  subject  of  much  recent  discus- 
sion, its  removal  being  a  hazardous  compromise  ;  and  surely 
the  greatest  industrial  city  in  the  world  ought  to  keep  on  its 
old  site  the  finest  merchant's  house  of  the  olden  times. 


i6o  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

tional  in  character  ;  it  belongs  to  an  earlier  time. 
You  will  note  the  pleasant  contrast  between 
many  gables  and  many  long  windows,  and  that 
the  glazed  openings  do  not  appear  too  large 
owing  to  the  supports  by  which  they  are 
flanked.  Other  points  are  the  roof  and  its 
treatment.  It  is  felt^  not  seen  ;  yet  the  gables 
are  built  with  so  much  care  that  this  old  house 
appears  to  be  roofed  almost  in  that  visible  manner 
which  Ruskin  loved  and  always  advocated. 

But  if  we  turn  to  another  ancient  home  in 
Cheshire,  Bramhall,^  we  shall  see  that  a  flat 
roof  without  gables  has  rather  an  inhospitable 
air,  looking  somewhat  forlorn  in  our  rainy 
climate.  Here  in  England  a  house  needs  a 
large  and  conspicuous  protection  against  snow 
and  rain  ;  and  the  more  clearly  it  is  seen  the 
more  certain  we  are  that  a  roof  is  the  soul  of 
northern  domestic  architecture.  Ruskin  speaks 
with  great  earnestness  on  this  point,  and  asks  his 
readers  to  detest  flat  roofs,  by  which  houses  are 
turned  into  large  packing-cases  with  windows 
in  them. 

Some  writers  believe  that  flattened  roofs  came 

*  Bramhall,  near  Stockport,  belonged  originally  to  the 
Bromhales,  or  Bromhals,  but  passed  by  marriage  into  the  hands 
of  the  Davenports,  /<rw3!/>«; Edward  III.  The  Elizabethan  Long 
Gallery  has  disappeared,  like  the  gate-house  and  one  side  of  the 
quadrangle. 


I  ITTLE    iMORETON    HaLL,    CHESHIRE. 

From  a  Drawing  by  Joseph  Nash.     Tudor  Architecture.     See  pages  159  and  160. 


>■••••■■  '••• 


11  nil  II 


li   t  111 


Bramhall,  Cheshire. 
From  a  Drawing  by  Joseph  Nash. 


See  page  160. 


GOTHIC  AND  TUDOR  HOMES    i6i 

to  England  with  other  Renaissance  ideals  of 
Italian  origin  ;  but  illustrations  in  this  book 
prove  that  they  were  not  unknown  as  far  back 
as  the  fourteenth  century.  English  Gothic, 
with  its  battlemented  parapets,  had  low  roofs  of 
its  own  ;  but  the  ancient  peaked  roofs  were 
retained  by  farmers  and  peasants.  There  is  also 
a  good  early  roof  on  the  Abbot's  House  at  Much 
Wenlock,  Shropshire,  a  very  seductive  piece  of 
architecture,  still  tenanted,  and  very  well  kept 
up.  There  are  many  arched  windows,  grouped 
in  two  long  rows,  and  Perpendicular  in  style. 
Eight  buttresses  are  built  along  the  front  with 
an  admirable  feeling  for  architectural  effect, 
and  the  roof  projects  a  little,  throwing  a 
pleasant  shadow  under  the  eaves  and  across 
the  top  row  of  windows.  (Plate  40,  facing 
page  164.) 


CHAPTER  X 

HALLS  OF  THE  POOR 

THE  slow  evolution  of  halls  may  be 
looked  upon  as  the  most  important 
thing  in  home  architecture.  For  a 
long  time — so  long  that  no  fixed  dates  can  be 
given — a  hall  v^as  one  room,  rectangular  in 
plan,  like  a  sardine  box,  and  as  vv^ell  packed. 
Women  and  men  lived  there  v^ith  a  sw^arm  of 
children,  as  many  families  do  now  in  slum  lodg- 
ings. Then,  as  time  went  on,  and  a  wish  for 
privacy  was  bred  by  the  great  discomfort,  a 
room  was  added  to  this  hall  :  it  may  be  called 
a  bower,  or  an  outshoot  or  outshut,  whichever 
you  like  ;  its  utility  was  great,  being  at  once 
a  day-room  and  a  bedroom ;  and  it  lasted  until 
another  growth  of  refinement  suggested  a  second 
private  chamber.  It  was  thus  that  halls  became 
palaces,  castles,  manor-houses,  and  cottages,- but 
without  losing  their  position  as  the  hearth- 
centre,  the  mainstay  of  home  life,  the  place 
around  which  all  family  traditions  and  interests 
gathered. 

Our  immediate  aim  is  to  study  this  pleasant 

162 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  163 

topic  in  its  relation  to  the  poor — namely,  chil- 
dren of  the  soil,  not  the  destitute  ;  these  have 
no  fireside  history,  but  only  a  wretchedness  that 
never  changes,  being  to-day  w^hat  it  was  in 
the  Middle  Ages — a  social  cancer  eating  deep 
into  the  life  of  towns.  At  a  time  when  the 
foulest  mud-and-timber  hovels  formed  slums  in 
English  cities  the  friars  came,  Dominicans 
arriving  in  1221,  and  Franciscans  three  years 
later;  and  it  was  hoped  that  they  would  cure 
the  destitute  and  demoralised.  Nearly  seven 
centuries  have  passed  since  then,  and  charity, 
during  that  long  span  of  time,  has  poured  into 
slums,  not  unlike  wisdom  spoken  into  deaf  ears. 
No  lasting  good  has  been  done.  On  the  con- 
trary, if  all  incurable  slum-dwellers  could  be 
got  together  in  one  place  they  would  form  a 
population  at  least  six  times  larger  than  the 
2,500,000  persons  who  lived  in  England 
when  those  friars  came  with  their  visiting 
charities. 

This  fact  ought  to  be  remembered  when 
English  homes  are  the  subject  of  debate.  Do 
slums  breed  a  microbe  ?  And  is  that  why  their 
misery  has  ever  been  endemic,  malignant,  and 
infectious  ? 

However  that  may  be,  it  is  like  a  breeze  of 
sea-air  to  turn  from  slums  to  country  cottages, 
where  we  may  watch  with  pleasure  the  growth 


1 64  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

of  peasant  architecture.  In  early  times  cabins 
were  built  on  gavels — that  is,  two  pairs  of 
bent  trees  were  joined  together  so  as  to 
form  two  arched  gable-ends  ;  these  were 
united  by  a  ridge-tree  that  stretched  from 
the  apex  of  one  arch  to  that  of  the  other  ; 
and  the  frame  was  braced  with  tie-beams 
and  completed  with  rafters,  upright  posts, 
interlacing  twigs,  and  so  forth.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  distance  between  the  gavels  was 
sixteen  feet — what  in  later  times  was  called 
a  house  of  one  bay.  The  word  bay  is  worth 
noting.  It  meant  a  good  many  things  in  old 
rustic  life.  When  you  come  upon  it  in  books 
it  means  a  unit  of  measurement  equal  in  length 
to  the  width  of  a  rood  of  land — /.f.,  sixteen  feet. 
It  denotes  also  the  amount  of  space  required 
in  a  shippon  for  a  long  span  of  oxen,  when 
stabled  four  abreast,  as  they  worked  in  the 
fields.  Thus  a  house  in  one  bay  shows  the  in- 
fluence of  farming  on  peasant  customs.  That 
is,  a  poor  family  was  content  to  live  in  a  hall 
no  bigger  than  the  space  given  to  four  oxen 
in  a  byre  or  shippon.  Apply  this  to  the  popular 
old  saying,  "  Every  dog  shall  have  his  bay," 
and  you  will  see  how  foolish  we  are  when  we 
put  in  "  day "  for  "  bay,"  or  regard  this  latter 
word  as  a  synonym  for  "  bark."  The  true 
meaning    is    that    even    the    poor    shall    have 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  165 

their  modest  home,  their  shelter  against  mis- 
fortune.* 

The  manner  in  which  the  old  foot  measure 
was  ascertained  for  a  rood  of  land  is  explained 
by  an  Elizabethan  writer  on  surveying,  Val- 
entin Ligh  by  name.  After  prayer  on  Sunday 
sixteen  men  were  stopped  at  the  church  door, 
just  as  they  happened  to  come  out,  so  that 
some  might  be  tall  and  others  short  ;  they  were 
then  put  in  a  line,  with  their  left  feet  touching 
one  another  ;  "  and  the  length  thus  obtained  " 
was  "  a  right  and  lawful  rood  to  measure  and 
survey  the  land  with,  and  the  sixteenth  part 
of  it ''  was  "  a  right  and  lawful  foot."  So  a 
house  in  one  bay  gave  the  length  of  sixteen 
left  feet  chosen  at  random  ;  and  this  explains 
why  this  architectural  unit  is  sometimes 
rather  less  than  sixteen  feet  of  twelve  inches 
each. 

It  was  a  small  house,  of  course,  and  furniture 
in  it  remained  very  primitive  for  a  long  time. 
In  the  taxing  rolls  of  Edward  L,  preserved 
numerously  in  the  Record  Office,  the  house- 
hold furniture   of  small  cottages  is  inventoried, 

*  I  believe  this  to  be  the  correct  reading.  But  Mr.  John 
Cash,  F.R.I.B.A.,  who  has  kindly  read  my  proof-sheets,  makes 
the  following  criticism  :  "  What  about  Shakespeare's  dog  baying 
the  moon  ?  But  perhaps  even  he  was  not  *  up  to  date,'  and 
certainly  I  never  heard  a  dog  emit  a  sound  equal  to  a  '  bay.'  " 


1 66  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

and  valued  at  a  very  few  shillings.  It  con- 
sists of  a  few  wooden  necessaries,  generally  of 
home  manufacture,  some  coarse  bedding,  andl 
some  domestic  implements,  mostly  earthen- 
ware. The  most  valuable  articles  in  use  were 
copper  or  brass  pots,  and  a  few  common  iron 
utensils,  all  metals  being  exceedingly  dear  ; 
and  iron,  relatively  speaking,  being  the  dearest 
of  all.*  As  a  rule  the  floor  was  the  bare  ■ 
ground  littered  over  with  filthy  rushes  or 
straw,  but  at  times  some  flint  cobbles  were 
beaten  into  the  earth  as  a  foundation  for  this 
litter  to  rest  upon.  Two  or  three  chests, 
made  by  a  cotter  during  long  winter  evenings, 
stood  by  the  walls  ;  a  bacon-rack  dangled  from 
the  roof-timbers  ;  some  dried  herbs,  employed 
as  medicine,  hung  in  bunches  here  and  there  ; 
and  a  wood  fire  burned  merrily  on  a  hob  of 
clay,  smoke  eddying  to  the  door  or  to  any 
hole  it  could  reach  with  help  from  the  strongest 
draught.  Sometimes  a  well  was  found  inside 
the  house,  but  generally  it  was  in  the  parcel 
of  land  by  which  a  home  was  surrounded — the 
toft  and  croft,  as  the  phrase  went;  and  the 
position  was  always  bad  for  a  well,  because 
no  sanitary    care    was    ever    taken.        Close    by 

*  Thorold  Rogers,  "  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages," 
pp.  67y  68. 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  167 

the  door  stood  a  mixen,  a  wet  heap  of  many 
abominations ;  rain  trickled  from  it  in  streams, 
and  one  cannot  beHeve  that  the  well  was  not 
polluted.  This  dunghill,  according  to  Thorold 
Rogers,  fertilised  the  lower  meadows,  generally 
the  lord's  several  pastures,  and  fouled  the  manor 
stream.  Of  course,  children  paddled  in  the 
overflow  from  the  mixen,  and  cleaned  their 
feet  on  the  rush-strewn  floor  of  the  hovel,  so 
that  plagues  found  many  dirty  customs  to 
welcome  them.  Even  food,  though  plentiful, 
was  unwholesome,  for  the  usual  diet  during 
six  months  of  the  year  was  meat  cured  with 
bad  salt.  Scurvy  was  common,  and  lepers 
became  so  numerous  that  no  fewer  than  a 
hundred  and  thirty  lazar  halls  or  hospitals  were 
built  for  them  and  endowed. 

There  were  three  kinds  of  hospitals  in  the 
old  days  :  (i)  Infirmaries,  having  a  hall  for  the 
sick,  and  at  the  east  end  a  chapel,  so  arranged 
that  sufferers  from  their  beds  could  hear  the 
service ;  (2)  leper  hospitals,  that  consisted  of 
lodgings  built  around  a  court,  with  a  chapel, 
well,  and  offices,  usually  near  to  a  running 
stream;  (3)  semi-collegiate  hospitals,  with  sepa- 
rate halls  surrounding  a  court,  on  the  Carthusian 
plan,  as  in  the  Hospital  of  Noble  Poverty  of 
St.  Cross,  Winchester,  and  Archbishop  Abbott's 
Hospital,    Guildford.      St.  Mary's,  Chichester^ 


1 68  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

is  the  best  example  we  have  now  of  a  thir- 
teenth-century hall  for  the  sick,  and  outside 
Chichester,  near  the  river  Lavant,  are  some 
ruined  remains  of,  the  leper  hospital  of  St. 
James. 

This  information  is  given  because  no  one 
can  understand  the  Middle  Ages  unless  he 
keeps  in  mind  the  innumerable  charities 
brought  into  being  by  conditions  of  daily 
life  unfriendly  to  ^  health.  The  lodgings  in 
which  lepers  were  attended,  usually  with  great 
kindness,  seem  to  have  been  built  in  bays, 
sometimes  with  offshoot  chambers,  as  in  the 
picture  drawn  by  Chaucer  in  his  "  Nonnes 
Preestes  Tale  "  : 

A  poure  widewe  somdel  stoupen  in  age, 
Was  whilom  dwelling  in  a  naVwe  cotage, 
Beside  a  grove,  stonding  in  a  dale. 
This  widewe,  which  I  tell  you  of  my  tale, 
_  Sin  thilke  day  that  she  was  last  a  wife, 
In  patience  led  a  ful  simple  life.  ^  - 

For  litel  was  hire  catel  and  hire  rente  : 
By  husbondry  of  swiche  as  God  hire  sente. 
She  found  hireself,  and  eke  hire  doughtren  two. 
Three  large  sowes  had  she,  and  no  mo ; 
Three  kine  and  eke  a  sheep  that  highte  Malle. 
Ful  sooty  was  hire  boure,  and  eke  hire  halle, 
In  which  she  ate  many  a  slender  mele. 
•  •  •  •  • 

Hire  bord  was  served  most  with  white  and  black. 
Milk  and  brown  bred,  in  which  she  fond  no  lack. 


TIMBER   HOU3E   AT 

WEOBI.ET,  HEREFORDSHIRE. 


Example  of  Decorated  Timberwork.     Fourteenth  Century. 

See  tage  175. 


c      c      t     c /c 


t    c     ^c    ^'c    '''  "c    c 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  169 

Seinde  bacon,  and  sometime  an  ey  or  twey ; 
For  she  was  as  it  were  a  maner  dey. 
A  yerd  she  had,  enclosed  all  about 
With  stickes,  and  a  dry  diche  without.  .  .  . 

It  is  an  excellent  picture,  as  sympathetic  as 
a  minute  oil-painting  by  Van  Eyck.  That 
"  narrow  "  cottage  is  still  to  be  seen  here  and 
there  in  many  a  country  district  :  a  cottage 
which  is  really  a  hall  with  a  room  at  the 
side,  known  as  a  bower  long  ago.  In  Chaucer's 
sketch  this  bower  and  the  hall  are  sooty  ;  so 
that  there  was  an  open  doorway  between  the 
two,  and  smoke  from  the  hall  fire  went  every- 
where ;  for  a  poor  widow  with  two  daughters 
could  not  afford  two  fires.  Even  a  second 
room  in  such  a  modest  little  cottage  is  re- 
markable, for  it  shows  among  the  least  pros- 
perous country  folk  of  the  fourteenth  century 
a  refinement  which  did  not  exist  among 
cotters  and  serfs  in  Henry  IIL's  time,  when 
a  hall  served  for  all  offices  of  domestic  life, 
from  weaving  and  cooking  to  eating  and 
sleeping. 

A  bower  was  a  kind  of  parlour  by  day  and 
a  bedroom  at  night,  a  predecessor  of  our 
modern  bed-sitting-room.  When  other  rooms 
were  added  to  the  bower  a  hall  of  one  bav 
reached  its  full  development  as  a  one-storied 
cottage — a  type  of  rustic  home  which  may  yet 


170  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

be  met  with  in  England.  Often  it  is  built  on 
gavels,  and  the  distance  between  the  gavels  is 
one  bay,  sixteen  feet ;  the  width  is  nearly  as 
much,  so  the  framework  of  timber  forms  a 
square  ;  and  the  space  within  is  the  old  house- 
place,  or  hall.  At  first  it  was  open  to  the  roof, 
but  in  some  examples  a  floor  has  been  put  in 
almost  level  with  the  eaves  ;  and  this  gives  a 
low  room  downstairs,  sometimes  less  than  six 
feet  high,  and  another  much  lower  amid  the 
roof-timbers,  where  those  who  can  may  sleep. 
The  room  below  is  lit  by  two  windows,  one 
on  the  left-hand  side  of  the  front  elevation,  and 
another  facing  it  across  the  room.  Near  this 
second  window  there  is  at  times  a  small  pantry 
or  larder. 

An  entrance  door  is  put  quite  close  to  the 
gavel-post  on  our  right-hand  side  ;  and  when 
we  enter  by  it  we  find  that  a  screen  juts  out 
from  the  wall  into  the  room,  rising  to  a  height 
of  nearly  six  feet,  and  projecting  beyond  the 
sweep  of  wind  from  the  open  door.  This 
screen,  often  known  as  a  speer,  and  often  as 
a  sconce,  forms  a  porch  inside  the  hall,  useful 
as  a  check  upon  draughts  in  winter,  and 
favouring  privacy  on  warm  days  when  the 
door  is  open.  It  is  also  a  part  of  the  furniture  ; 
for  along  the  top  of  it  is  a  shelf  for  bright 
pots  and  pans,  and  a  settle  is    fastened  to  the 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  171 

inner  side,  within  a  few  feet  of  a  big  fireplace. 
A  mantelpiece,  laden  with  odds  and  ends  of 
pottery,  has  always  a  charm  of  its  own,  a 
rustic  homeliness  ;  and  don't  you  like  it  best 
when  it  runs  like  a  beam  from  wall  to  wall, 
spanning  the  full  width  of  a  whitewashed 
room  ? 

Just  beyond  the  fireplace  the  door  opens  into 
a  bower,  and  this  offshoot  from  the  hall  may 
be  divided  by  a  brattice  into  a  couple  of  small 
sleeping-rooms.  The  brattice,  or  wooden  screen, 
as  Mr.  Addy  points  out,  was  "  anciently  known 
as  a  parclose  or  enterclose  "  ;  it  "  extends  about 
half-way  up  to  the  roof,  and  is  not  unlike 
the  partition  which  divides  cow-stalls  from 
each  other."  *  It  denotes  a  half-wish  to  be 
private. 

Of  course,  the  plan  varies  in  other  old 
cottages.  Outshoots  from  a  hall  may  be  equal 
on  each  side  ;  they  are  so  frequently  ;  and 
sometimes  the  door  is  screened  by  an  outer 
porch.  Still,  when  you  look  at  an  old  cottage 
and  wish  to  understand  it  the  main  points  to 
be  decided  are  three  in  number  : 

1.  To  what  extent  is  it  in  keeping  with 
mediasval  plans  ? 

2.  Is  it  built  on  gavels,  and,  if  so,   what  is 

*  See  Mr.  Addy's  excellent  book  on  "  The  Evolution  of  the 
English  House  "  in  rur^l  places, 


1/2  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  distance  between  them  ?  Is  it  a  house  of 
one  bay  or  of  more  ? 

3.  Or  does  it  belong  to  a  type  of  house 
without  gavels  ? 

To  focus  the  first  question  in  its  relation  to 
better  kinds  of  old  cottages  and  farms,  let  us 
turn  for  a  moment  to  the  Weald  of  Kent  and 
Sussex.  "  The  timber  houses  of  this  district," 
says  Mr.  E.  Guy  Dawber,  "  constitute  a  class 
somewhat  by  themselves,  and  though  mutilated 
to  a  great  extent  both  in  plan  and  in  elevation, 
they  yet  show  us  pretty  clearly  the  arrangement 
of  a  yeoman's  house  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  most  usual  plan  was  practically  a  con- 
tinuation of  the  old  mediaeval  one — an  oblong 
hall  or  common  room  in  the  centre,  with 
offices  or  other  rooms  at  either  end,  forming 
wings  ;  sometimes  the  wing  was  built  at  one 
end  only,  but  more  frequently  the  plan  was 
symmetrical.  This  type  of  plan,  indeed,  was 
the  prevailing  one  throughout  England,  and 
was  probably  the  origin  of  the  E-  and  H-shaped 
plans  on  a  larger  and  more  extensive  scale, 
which  developed  in  the  reigns  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth and  James  I.,  but  throughout  Sussex  and 
Kent  we  find  it,  or  some  modification  of  it, 
in  nearly  all  the  houses  of  any  antiquity.  .  .  . 
In  the  earliest  arrangements  the  plan  was  a 
simple  parallelogram,  with  ends  slightly  breaking 


Cottages  at  Kingsland,  Herefordshire. 
Photo  by  T.  H.  Winterbourn,  Leominster. 


See  tage  1 74. 


Cottages  at  Easebourne,  Sussex. 


Seepage  173 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  173 

forward  and  the  upper  story  at  the  floor  level 
projecting,  or  sometimes  carried  around  the  entire 
building."  * 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  rustic  architecture  in 
Sussex  and  Kent,  and  in  other  parts  of  England, 
is  a  development  of  the  simple  hall  whose  evolu- 
tion I  have  traced  for  you  from  primitive  times. 
Again,  never  fail  to  measure  the  central  room 
in  an  old  cottage  or  farmhouse,  so  as  to  learn 
whether  it  was  built  in  bays  and  half-bays — that 
is,  whether  the  length  is  a  multiple  of  sixteen 
or  one  of  eight. 

You  remember  those  long  cottages  that  recall 
to  mind  the  one  where  Anne  Hathaway  is  said 
to  have  lived  ?  Not  only  were  they  built  in 
several  bays,  but  they  used  to  be  sold  by  the 
bay,  like  fodder  for  horses  ;  and  sometimes  the 
bays  were  left  by  will  to  different  children.  In 
this  event  a  cottage  could  be  sold  and  the  money 
divided  in  exact  accord  with  the  different  lega- 
cies, or  the  children  might  use  the  cottage  as 
several  homes,  adding  new  bays  or  new  offshoots 
in  accordance  with  their  wants. 

Here,  for  example,  is  a  long  row  of  simple 
cottages  at  Easebourne,  in  Sussex,  with  two 
dormer  windows,  and  with  a  timber  framework 
and  plastered  walls.     The  chimneys  are  modern- 

*  "  Old  Cottages  and  Farmhouses  in  Kent  and  Sussex,"  by 
E.  Guy  Dawber,  F.R.I.B.A.,  pp.  5  and  6  (B.  T.  Batsford). 


174  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

ised,  and  the  thatch  is  neglected,  but  the  general 
look  of  the  architecture  is  good  and  pleasing. 
The  original  work  is  probably  Tudor,  I  think. 
Long  ago  this  building  was  probably  one  cottage 
built  in  several  bays,  with  a  central  hall  and 
rooms  on  each  side. 

Another  illustration — some  old  cottages  at 
Kingsland,  near  Leominster,  Herefordshire — has 
a  different  arrangement  of  bays:  there  are  two  pro- 
jecting wings  that  form  a  little  courtyard  before 
the  central  house.  It  is  a  pretty  composition, 
gabled,  framed  with  good  timber,  and  silhouet- 
ting against  the  sky  in  a  graceful,  waved  line. 
This  building  may  have  been  a  wayside  inn  long 
ago,  during  the  reign  of  James  I.  perhaps.  The 
wings  do  not  seem  to  be  outshoots — later  ad- 
ditions to  the  middle  cottage  :  the  timber  is 
all  of  the  same  age,  apparently,  though  one 
cannot  be  certain,  as  there  are  evidences  of 
bad  luck  here  and  there.  Thus  the  roof  was 
once  slated,  and  a  few  bare  slates  have  been 
left  behind  a  tall  chimney  as  a  testimonial  to 
better  days.  The  present  thatch  seems  rather 
ashamed  of  itself.  But  the  good  times  enjoyed 
by  this  Kingsland  cottage  were  never  more 
than  homely  in  a  rustic  way,  because  the  crafts- 
manship has  none  of  the  richer  qualities  so 
common  in  Herefordshire  timber  houses.  We 
find  here  no  weather-boarding,  no    angle-posts 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  175 

and  carved  pendants,  no  balustrade,  and  no 
corbels. 

To  see  what  Herefordshire  work  became, 
from  the  fourteenth  century  to  the  Jacobean 
times,  you  must  go  to  Weobley  and  read  about 
that  delightful  village.  It  has  changed  since 
Parker  wrote  about  it  in  his  "  Domestic  Archi- 
tecture of  the  Middle  Ages,"  but  although  some 
fine  houses  have  disappeared,  while  others  have 
been  mutilated,  beautiful  things  still  remain.  I 
give  a  view  of  the  High  Street,  with  a  delightful 
gabled  house  designed  and  built  by  John  Abell, 
carpenter  and  builder,  whose  genius  won  ap- 
proval from  Charles  L  Abell,  not  being  a 
learned  architect,  was  content  to  be  a  master 
in  the  local  style  so  long  inherited  by  Here- 
fordshire craftsmen,  and  I  am  giving  a  good 
illustration  to  show  what  that  style  was  at 
earlier  periods. 

From  Parker's  book  I  take  a  timber  house  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  delicate  and  delightful, 
having  a  four-light  window  enriched  with  tracery. 
Contrast  this  example  (p.  168)  with  Plate  44 
and  Plate  45,  both  subjects  of  great  interest, 
and  you  will  see  at  once  where  John  Abell  got 
his  ideas. 


be 


To  pass  on  to  another  topic,  could  anything 
more    pleasant    than     the    way    in    which 


176  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

mediaeval  country  life  centred  around  the  fields, 
just  as  it  does  to-day  in  Northern  Germany  ? 
There  was  something  curiously  uniform  in  the 
treatment  of  all  farm-workers,  from  men  and 
women  to  horses,  sheep,  and  cattle.  Even  a 
barn  was  like  other  buildings,  firmly  and  strongly 
built  ;  but  as  its  windows  were  meant  only  to 
give  air  their  size  was  unusually  small.  Some 
famous  barns,  dating  from  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  were  large  cruciform  struc- 
tures, much  better  built  than  many  modern 
churches.  Parker  gives  several  illustrations  of 
this,  and  among  them  is  a  famous  barn  that 
existed  in  his  time  at  Pilton,  Somersetshire,  which 
in  style  belonged  to  our  Perpendicular  Gothic, 
not  earlier  than  the  reign  of  Richard  11. 

Shippons,  too,  like  barns,  were  often  long 
halls  built  in  bays,  and  divided  into  a  central 
nave  and  two  flanking  isles  with  stalls  for  the 
cattle.  The  long  yoke  of  oxen  stood  four 
abreast  in  ^a  great  stall  sixteen  feet  wide  ;  cows 
were  in  separate  compartments.  On  both  sides 
the  animals  faced  the  nave  ;  and  many  a  labourer 
slept  near  them,  and  found  their  breath  much 
better  than  the  foul  air  in  a  cabin.  Those  who 
sleep  near  cattle  awake  fresh  in  the  morning, 
as  Charles  Reade  mentions  in  "The  Cloister 
and  the  Hearth."  Even  to-day,  in  Friesland 
and  Saxony,  shippon   and   house  are  combined 


u 


r.      ^ 


a    -3 

a      ^      ^ 

c 


ffi  ^ 


2    ^ 


c     S 


c         c     c  c 

c     c  c  « 

c       V  I  ^ 

<■    ,«  t    ,  c,  ccc    c 


"c« 


c  c  c    c         •    '  »  " 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  177 

together  under  one  roof,  and  the  standard  of  health 
is  not  lower  than  with  us. 

Professor  Meitzen,  in  "  Das  Deutsche  Haus/' 
has  much  to  say  about  Frisian  and  Saxon  farms ; 
and  as  we  are  descended  from  the  same  stock  as 
the  Saxons  and  Frisians,  we  get  from  Professor 
Meitzen  something  of  the  distant  past  of 
England.  Something :  one  cannot  say  more 
than  that,  because  our  English  manor  system 
had  original  characteristics,  while  retaining  many 
that  were  Teutonic.  During  the  Middle  Ages 
a  country  parish  remained  a  Teutonic  settlement 
of  the  sixth  century,  but  with  modifications  ; 
and  amongst  these,  no  doubt,  the  most  important 
were  the  little  villages  with  small,  detached 
homes,  separated  nurseries  for  variousness  of 
character.  This  applies  particularly  to  Southern 
England.  Hard  districts  in  the  North  bred  a 
harder  race  and  a  conservatism  steel-like  in 
temper,  Teutonic  in  a  primitive  way.  As  late  as 
Shakespeare's  time  there  were  farming  customs 
in  the  North  not  to  be  found  in  Southern 
districts,  and  they  had  much  in  common  with 
modern  life  on  Saxon  and  Frisian  homesteads. 
Harrison,  whose  book  on  England  goes  back  to 
the  year  1577,  describes  the  difference  that  then 
existed  between  North  and  South.  He  writes  an 
involved  style,  putting  far  too  many  facts  in  a 
sentence,  but  it  is  worth    while   to  disentangle 


M 


178  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

them.  Houses  "  in  champaine  ground  stand  alto- 
gither  by  streets,  and  joining  one  to  an  other," 
while  "  in  woodland  soiles  "  they  are  "  dispersed 
here  and  there,  each  one  upon  the  severall  grounds 
of  their  owners."  "  The  mansion  houses  of  our 
country  towns  and  villages  are  builded  in  such 
sort  generallie,  as  that  they  have  neither  dairie, 
stable,  nor  bruehouse  annexed  unto  them  under 
the  same  roof,  as  in  many  places  beyond  the 
sea  and  some  of  the  north  parts  of  our  countrie." 
All  are  "  separate  from  the  first,  and  one  of  them 
from  an  other.  And  yet,  for  all  this,  they  are 
not  so  farre  distant  in  sunder,  but  that  the  good- 
man  lieng  in  his  bed  may  lightlie  heare  what  is 
doone  in  each  of  them  with  ease,  and  call 
quickly  unto  his  meinie  [household]  if  any 
danger  should  attack  him." 

Thus,  in  some  parts  of  Northern  England,  in 
1577,  farmers  lived  under  one  roof  with  their 
horses  and  cattle.  Taking  this  fact  as  a  guide, 
it  will  be  easy  to  find  out  to  what  extent  present- 
day  farms  in  Saxony  and  Friesland  help  us  to 
understand  the  English  evolution  of  Saxon 
halls. 

Imagine  a  vast  building  with  a  great  nave  and 
two  big  aisles.  At  one  gable-end  a  doorway  is 
recessed  ;  the  door  itself  is  in  two  parts,  each  of 
which  can  be  opened  separately  ;  when  both 
parts    are    shut  their  width  is  nearly  equal    to 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  179 

that  of  the  nave  or  central  floor  ;  and  when 
they  are  swung  wide  open  you  see  that  this  nave 
runs  almost  to  the  end  of  the  hall,  till  arrested  by 
a  hearth  and  by  three  rooms.  Flanking  this 
hearth,  in  high  and  narrow  bunks,  are  sleeping- 
cupboards  for  the  farmer  and  his  family. 
During  the  day  the  household  lives  around  the 
fireplace,  for  room  enough  is  kept  for  domestic 
use.  This  part  of  the  hall  extends  as  far 
as  the  opposite  side  walls  ;  to  right  and  left 
there  is  a  glass  door  into  the  open  air,  and 
light  comes  in  also  through  high  and  broad 
windows. 

The  nave  on  each  side  is  divided  into  stalls  ; 
cows  stand  on  our  right  hand  and  horses  on 
our  left,  looking  over  their  mangers  into  the 
nave,  whence  their  fodder  is  thrown  to  them  ; 
and  maid-servants  sleep  over  the  cows  and  men 
above  their  horses.  In  this  wonderful  hall 
even  a  large  harvest  may  be  gaunered,  on  poles 
and  boards  between  the  roof-timbers.  I  have 
mentioned  chambers  behind  the  fireplace  ;  these 
did  not  exist  till  modern  times,  when  a  change 
in  heating  arrangements  brought  them  into 
vogue.  A  chimney  was  built,  and  the  hall 
freed  from  soot  ;  but  when  smoke  no  longer 
passed  through  the  hall,  to  disinfect  every 
part  of  it,  a  pungent  byre  smell  from  cattle 
and    horses   became    too    strong    to    be    borne. 


i8o  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

and  fleas  and  other  vermin  were  not  driven 
away.  The  effect  of  wood  and  turf  smoke 
on  vermin  explains  a  preference  shown  by 
Northern  peasants  for  an  open  hearth  without 
a  chimney. 

In  this  Saxon  house,  as  in  those  English  ones 
described  by  Harrison,  a  master  from  his 
hearth  or  from  his  bedstead  can  hear  every  sound 
and  keep  watch  over  his  farm-servants ;  and 
this  must  be  needful  in  modern  Germany, 
because  tobacco  and  matches  are  as  dangerous 
in  a  loft  above  a  hall  as  in  a  coal-mine.  The 
general  use  of  tobacco  has  contributed  not  a 
little  to  the  disappearance  in  England  of  the 
hay-loft  as  a  sleeping-place  for  men-servants. 
Risks  of  fire  became  too  great  when  matches 
and  tobacco  were  brought  within  reach  of  all 
labourers.  But  old  men  still  remember  a  time 
when  "  farmers'  men-servants  in  England  used 
to  sleep  on  the  hay  in  a  gallery  or  hay-loft 
over  the  cows.  Some  of  them  have  been 
known  to  sleep  there  for  a  year  together,"  but 
not  without  waking,  let  us  hope.  "  It  is  said 
that  they  often  did  so  to  save  money  to  be 
spent  in  drink  " — and  tobacco  also,  we  may  be 
sure.  "  When  Irish  labourers  came  over  in 
the  autumn  to  assist  in  getting  the  harvest  in 
they  usually  slept  on  the  hay  or  straw  in  the 
barn  or  in^the  balk.     In  the  sixteenth  century 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  i8i 

ox-houses  in  Yorkshire  still  contained  beds, 
blankets,  sheets,  mattresses,  pillows,  bolsters, 
and  happings,  or  coarse  coverlets.  As  no  bed- 
steads are  mentioned,  we  may  presume  that 
the  mattresses  were  laid  on  the  floor  of  the 
loft  over  the  ox-stalls."* 

We  have  now  followed  the  growth  of  halls 
from  primitive  huts  to  country  cottages  of 
to-day  ;  and  peasants  who  live  in  old  cottages 
find  that  they  are  as  comfortable  as  any  good 
model  dwellings  recently  built  by  philanthropic 
landowners.  I  use  the  word  philanthropic 
because  few  country  houses,  if  they  are  well 
made,  can  be  let  at  a  rent  that  gives  a  fair  return 
on  the  capital  which  they  represent.  Well- 
built  cottages  for  labourers  pay  only  a  small 
interest,  and  this  vanishes  altogether  in  "  to  be 
let "  seasons.  Building  costs  are  now  a  great 
hindrance  to  good  work  as  a  profitable  invest- 
ment ;  and  many  expenses  might  be  avoided. 
The  curse  of  building  to-day  is  the  number 
of  middlemen  who  live  by  it,  and  whose  power 
is  even  worse  than  the  tetchiness  of  trade  unions. 
It  is  amazing  to  think  about  the  ways  in  which 
money  is  squandered.  Bricks  are  carried  into 
districts  where  stone  quarries  are  common  ; 
stone  travels  by  rail  into  counties  where  bricks 
have  been  used  for  centuries ;  timber  comes 
*  Mr.  Addy's  book,  pp.  81-82. 


i82  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

from  one  merchant,  window-frames  from 
another,  gates  from  a  third  ;  slates,  tiles,  and 
other  necessaries  journey  in  trucks  from  good- 
ness knows  where  ;  and  builders  are  careless. 
When  architecture  is  treated  in  this  Gilbertian 
fashion  good  work  must  be  expensive  and  bad 
work  common. 

Not  thus,  you  may  be  sure,  was  work  done 
when  England  became  famous  for  her  churches, 
farms,  manor-houses,  country  mansions,  and 
rustic  cottages.  Middlemen  did  not  exist  in 
those  days,  and  the  cost  of  building  was  three 
times  less  than  it  is  at  present,  though  craftsmen 
were  relatively  as  well  paid.  Perhaps  the  most 
interesting  forms  of  architecture  were  those 
that  carried  on  the  Saxon  traditions,  showing 
from  age  to  age  the  progress  of  timber  houses,  as 
in  Cheshire,  Warwickshire,  Lancashire,  Shrop- 
shire, and  Herefordshire.  Of  course,  beautiful 
timbered  houses  were  built  elsewhere,  as  in  Kent, 
and  there  were  several  marked  differences  between 
the  methods  of  work  in  different  counties.  In 
Southern  districts,  for  example,  the  craftsman- 
ship is,  as  a  rule,  more  refined ;  it  has  the 
character  of  a  carriage-horse,  while  in  the  Mid- 
lands and  the  North  the  style  reminds  you  of 
a  cart-horse  breed.  A  prodigious  amount  of 
wood  is  employed  for  a  house,  and  all  the  beams 
are  thick  and  heavy. 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  183 

But  there  are  exceptions  to  this  rule.  Some 
timbered  buildings  in  the  Western  counties  are 
quite  similar  to  those  in  Kent,  while  a  few- 
Kentish  cottages  and  Sussex  farms  have  a  great 
deal  in  common  with  the  rustic  woodwork  of 
Salop  and  Herefordshire.  Still,  the  Western  and 
Northern  districts  usually  show  in  their  ancient 
timbered  houses  the  same  stern  qualities  which 
may  be  noticed  to-day  in  their  people's  character 
and  speech.  Both  are  to  be  trusted,  but  their 
graces  are  rough-hewn  and  downright,  above  all 
in  Lancashire. 

The  strongest  note  of  all  in  Northern  and 
Western  design  is  the  way  in  which  elaborate 
patterns  are  formed  in  the  timberwork  itself  by 
using  bent  and  twisted  pieces  of  wood  from 
small  branches,  and  placing  them  in  the  panels 
formed  by  the  uprights  and  crossrails.  This 
delight  in  patterned  ornament  on  the  exterior 
walls  of  houses  must  not  be  looked  upon  as 
belonging  to  one  period,  because  it  is  more 
noticeable  in  later  buildings  than  in  those  of 
an  earlier  time.* 

Finally,  the  timbered  houses  now  extant, 
though  often  mutilated  by  ill-treatment,  belong 
by  descent  to  three  periods.  Some  are  as  old 
as  the  fifteenth  century,  like  the  Rows,  Weobley, 
Herefordshire,  and  the  Butchers'  Row,  Shrews- 
*  See  the  plates  of  Bramhall  and  Little  Moreton  Hall. 


1 84  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

bury.  But  the  work  of  this  first  period  now 
extant  is  usually  hidden  from  sight  under  a 
fronting  of  later  date,  as  in  Sussex  and  Kent, 
where  many  a  tile-hung  farm  or  plastered  cot- 
tage was  a  timbered  dwelling  at  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  or  thereabouts.  Oak  has  a 
great  tendency  to  shrink,  and  when  this  hap- 
pened in  the  old  days,  making  gaps  through 
which  the  wind  passed,  walls  were  either 
daubed  all  over  on  the  outside,  or  covered 
with  tiles,  or  boarded  with  deal  planks.  This 
gave  them  a  new  shell,  and  preserved  the 
original  wood  frame.  So  it  is  always  worth 
while  to  examine  with  great  care  the  beams 
inside  an  ancient  house,  as  they  are  probably 
of  much  earlier  workmanship  than  the  walls 
outside. 

But  the  great  period  of  timbered  architecture 
\lies  between  the  years  1558  and  1625.  To  it 
^elong    nearly    all    the  famous   examples  to   be 

found  at  present  in  England — often,  one  regrets 
o  say,  in  that  "  restored  ''  condition  which 
uneducated  persons  like.  There  is  yet  another 
period,  stretching  from  the  year  1625  to  the 
reign  of  George  II.  ;  but  the  wood-framed 
houses  deserving  the  most  careful  study  join 
the  times  of  Edward  VI.  with  those  of 
James  I. 

A   practical   question   now  arises.     Is  timber 


2     ^ 


HALLS  OF  THE  POOR  185 

nogging"^  a  favourable  style  for  a  modera  home  ? 
The  best  answer  to  this  question  is  given  by 
Mr.  E.  A.  Ould,  an  architect  of  distinction, 
who  speaks  after  practical  experience  and  with 
full  knowledge  of  his  subject.  "  Given  a 
suitable  client/'  says  he,  "  one  who  is  worthy  of 
the  privilege  of  living  in  a  timber  house,  who 
will  appreciate  the  advantages  and  put  up  with 
the  drawbacks,  it  is  eminently  a  suitable  style 
for  a  house  of  moderate  dimensions.  But  it  is 
not  a  cheap  style,  nor  one  to  give  to  a  fidgety 
or  exacting  client,  who  will  attribute  the 
natural  behaviour  of  the  materials  to  some 
neglect  on  the  part  of  the  builder.  No  matter 
how  dry  the  oak  may  be,  it  will  shrink  and 
twist  to  some  extent  when  first  exposed  to  the 
weather  and  sunshine.  After  about  two  years 
the  oakwork  will  require  overhauling  and  the 
lead-lights  and  casements  refitting,  after  which 
it  should  give  little  further  trouble,  if  it  has 
been  properly  constructed  at  first.  No  style 
of  building  will  harmonise  so  quickly  and  so 
completely  with  its  surroundings,  and  so  soon 
pass  through  the  crude  and  brand-new  period, 

*  Nogging  :  This  term  is  applied  also  to  brickwork  when 
carried  up  in  panels  between  studs  or  quarters,  in  which 
method  of  work  partitions  are  made  which  are  known  as 
"  brick-nogged  partitions."  Brick  nogging  sometimes  forms 
a  pattern,  a  herring-bone  design  as  a  rule. 


1 86  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

and  none  continues  to  live  on  such  terms  of 
good-fellowship  with  other  materials,  whether 
rosy  brickwork,  grey  lichen-covered  masonry, 
or  pearly  flag-slates,  which  last  it  loves  most 
of  all."  =^ 

*  "  Old  Cottages,  Farmhouses,  and  other  Half-timbered 
Buildings  in  Shropshire,  Herefordshire,  and  Cheshire,"  by 
J.  Parkinson  and  E.  A.  Ould  (B.  T.  Batsford,  publisher). 


CHAPTER  XI 

ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  MANSIONS 

THE  transition  from  Tudor  to  Eliza- 
bethan began  during  the  reign  of 
Henry  VHI.  Proud  as  this  king 
was  of  his  country  and  people,  he  yet  had  one 
doubt  in  his  mind  as  to  their  worth  ;  and 
this  doubt  concerned  their  taste  in  art.  Was  it 
equal  to  that  of  other  nations  ?  Was  it  not 
rather  inclined  to  be  rude,  untutored,  and 
insular  ? 

.  Many  a  king  had  asked  himself  these 
questions  before  they  came  into  the  mind  of  our 
eighth  Henry  ;  and  the  reply  given  to  them  in 
actions  had  never  been  quite  just  to  England. 
Even  in  Saxon  times  some  foreign  craftsmen 
had  been  imported  as  missionaries  of  good  taste, 
and  since  the  Norman  Conquest  the  same 
thing  had  happened  many  times,  showing  that 
self-abasement  which  Englishmen  to  this  day 
are  ever  ready  to  parade  in  matters  artistic. 
London  critics  are  never  so  happy  as  when  they 
speak  to  us  about  foreign  pictures  and  sculpture, 
and  dealers  find  it  easier  to  launch  a  Frenchman 

187 


1 88  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

of  genius  than  a  native  artist  quite  equal  to  him 
in  merit. 

All  this  points  to  a  national  fear  of  self  in 
things  esthetic  ;  and  this  may  arise  from  the 
fact  that  England's  attention  has  been  drawn 
away  from  her  silent  arts  by  the  conscious 
delight  which  she  has  ever  taken  in  active 
pursuits  and  pastimes  involving  risk  or  danger. 
If  any  one  had  told  Henry  VIII.  that  archers 
could  be  found  superior  to  his  own  good  peasants 
and  yeomen  his  Majesty's  anger  would  have 
been  a  thing  worth  seeing  ;  but  when  he  was 
given  to  understand  that  his  craftsmen  wanted 
taste  he  accepted  the  false  criticism,  not  only 
receiving  foreign  artists  at  his  court,  but  giving 
hospitality  to  an  Italian  architect,  John  of 
Padua. 

This  man  became  "  Devisor "  of  the  king's 
buildings  a.d.  1544.  Henry  died  three  years 
later,  and  may  thus  have  been  in  bad  health 
when  he  put  an  Italian  watchman  to  superintend 
his  Tudor  architects.  Anyhow,  John  of  Padua 
was  not  ousted  by  his  patron's  death,  but  lived 
through  the  next  reign  under  Somerset's  pro- 
tection, receiving  two  shillings  a  day  for 
his  work  as  "  devisor,"  a  sum  about  equal 
to  a  pound  in  modern  money.  He  was  a 
consulting  architect,  and  the  first  of  that  kind 
in  England. 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN   189 

W  John  carried  his  good  luck  into  Elizabeth's 
time,  when  he  is  said  to  have  built  Longleat 
Hall,  in  Wiltshire,  between  the  years  1567  and 
1579.  Another  building  attributed  to  him  was 
old  Somerset  House,  long  since  destroyed.  It 
made  way  for  the  present  Anglo-Palladian 
structure,  designed  by  Sir  William  Chambers 
in  1776,  and  finished  by  Sir  James  Pennethorne. 
John  of  Padua  was  certainly  a  man  of  great 
ability,  and  his  sympathy  for  Classical  ideals 
must  have  had  a  wide  influence  over  English 
masons  and  joiners.  Nor  was  this  the  only 
unnational  event  in  Elizabethan  architecture. 
Many  foreign  craftsmen  came  to  England, 
French,  Flemish,  German,  and  Italian,  and 
all,  or  nearly  all,  had  served  their  apprentice- 
ship to  the  revived  Classic  style. 

In  these  circumstances  it  was  wonderful  that 
Elizabethan  houses  were  able  to  keep  so  many 
Gothic  features,  forming  a  style  in  which  the 
Renaissance  temper  of  mind  appeared  as  a  ser- 
vant, not  as  a  master.  It  would  become  a  tyrant 
at  a  later  time,  but  under  Elizabeth  and  James  I. 
it  spoke  Italian  like  a  good  Englishman  after  a 
short  trip  to  Padua,  Bologna,  or  some  other  city 
that  Elizabethans  loved  to  think  about.  Village 
builders,  good  conservative  fellows,  were  most 
unwilling  to  give  up  their  own  methods  and 
traditions  ;  and  this  explains  why  the  humbler 


I90  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

kinds  of  house  used  by  shopkeepers,  yeomen, 
millers,  peasants,  and  manor  stewards  have  long 
been  noted  as  more  national,  and  often  more 
pleasing,  than  those  great  mansions  that  recall 
to  memory  the  essay  on  building  written  by 
Bacon. 

Rustic  Elizabethan  does  not  try  to  do  too 
much.  It  is  simple  and  structural,  it  shows  in 
all  its  forms  and  methods  that  it  has  grown  out 
of  old  traditions,  and  its  charm  is  infinitely 
various.  What  could  be  more  different  than 
a  good  sixteenth-century  house  in  Gloucester- 
shire, built  of  stone,  with  peaked  gables, 
muUioned  windows,  and  square  dripstones,  and 
a  timber-framed  cottage  in  Herefordshire, 
Shropshire,  or  Cheshire  ?  The  first  represents 
the  Perpendicular  style  in  English  Gothic, 
the  other  carries  on  those  woodland  handicrafts 
that  the  Anglo-Saxons  brought  with  them  to 
England. 

Still,  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to  speak 
of  the  large  mansions,  beginning  with  Hengrave 
Hall,  Suffolk,  partly  because  it  was  a  very  fine 
example  of  late  Tudor  work,  and  partly  because 
its  munificent  planning  had  a  great  eff^ect  on 
Elizabethan  architects.  Hengrave  was  built  by 
Sir  Thomas  Kitson,  and  finished  in  1538.  There 
were  no  fewer  than  a  hundred  and  twenty 
rooms,  and  of  these  not  less  than  forty  were  put 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN    191 

on  the  ground  floor.  The  plan  ^  has  a  great 
interest,  for  its  main  feature  is  quite  Italian,  as 
though  influenced  by  John  of  Padua.  This 
feature  is  a  small  inner  court  only  forty-nine 
by  forty-five  feet.  Corridors,  six  feet  wide,  form 
a  sort  of  cloister  around  three  sides,  the  fourth 
side  being  the  hall,  with  three  windows  that 
receive  light  from  that  court.  One  window  is  a 
fine  bay  about  ten  feet  wide  and^  eight  deep. 
Along  the  corridors  six  windows  look  into  the 
court,  and  three  doors.  As  to  the  rooms,  they 
are  gathered  about  this  little  open  area,  and  we 
find  on  the  ground  floor  bed-chambers,  wardrobes, 
a  drawing-room,  a  chapel,  a  china-room,  a  ser- 
vants' waiting-hall,  an  entrance-hall,  two  dining- 
rooms — one  for  summer  months,  lit  by  four  good 
windows,  the  other  for  winter — a  breakfast- 
room,  a  housekeeper's  room,  the  great  hall,  a 
servants'  hall,  and  a  scattered  wing  for  the  house- 
hold offices,  the  kitchen,  as  usual,  being  at  a 
great  distance  from  the  dining-tables. 

An  ancient  Roman  would  be  astonished  by 
the  number  of  diff^erent  chambers  at  Hengrave, 
but  he  would  certainly  recognise  that  inner  court 
as  a  thing  not  at  all  unlike  an  uncovered  atrium 
with  cubicles  around  it.     In  England,  no  doubt, 

*  See  Kerr's  "English  Gentleman's  House,"  p.  38,  where 
a  plan  is  reproduced  from  Britton's  "Antiquities,"  showing 
Hengrave  Hall  as  it  was  in  1775- 


192  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

before  Hengrave  Hall  was  built,  some  houses 
had  inner  courts,  as  I  have  shown  in  a  preceding 
chapter,  but  their  use  at  Haddon  Hall  or  at 
Oxburgh  Hall,  Norfolk,  was  different,  the  open 
quadrangle  being  large  and  well  aired.  I  have 
spoken  of  Oxburgh  before  as  a  very  typical 
home  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Here  the  court 
measures  128  ft.  by  100  ft.,  and  the  buildings 
that  surround  it  look  like  a  fringe.*  That  is,  the 
court  dominates  the  plan — we  stand  in  it  at  our 
easq,  and  see  windowed  walls  on  all  sides.  The  air 
is  fresh  ;  we  could  train  here  for  a  Marathon 
race,  but  what  could  we  do  in  the  little  area  or 
court  at  Hengrave,  measuring  little  more  than 
sixteen  yards  by  fifteen  ?  It  is  not  better  nor 
more  admirable  than  a  well-hole  in  a  London 
flat,  where  the  sun  cannot  enter,  where  vitiated 
air  collects,  and  where  rain  is  a  source  of 
damp,  cold,  and  discomfort  to  all  the  rooms 
that  it  is  supposed  to  keep  sweet  with  fresh 
air. 

Perhaps  John  of  Padua  had  a  hand  in  the 
planning  of  Hengrave.  At  Longleat,  a  house 
attributed  to  him,  there  were  two  little  inner 
courts,  till  the  plan  was  remodelled  by  Sir  J. 
Wyatville  in  1809  ;  both  were  arranged  as  an 
Italian  would  have  built  them,  and  had  points 

*  Kerr  gives  a  good  plan  of  Oxburgh  Hall,  taken  from  a 
drawing  made  in  1774,  ^"^  published  by  Britton. 


>  ,  '      ',  ^',    J       '  J      >    5     ' 


Staircase,  Crewe  Hall,  Cheshire.     Dating  from  1636. 

See  pages  200  ana  201. 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN   193 

in  common  with  the  central  spaces  to  be  found 
in  palaces  at  Pisa,  Siena,  Rome,  and  Florence, 
though  their  use  was  different.  In  Italy  an  open 
court  within  a  building  is  a  shelter  from  heat 
and  from  noise,  and  so  a  palace  there  turns  inwards 
from  the  street,  gathers  all  living-rooms  around 
an  open  space,  and  unites  them  together  by 
means  of  corridors,  and  balconies  that  serve  as 
ante-rooms.  Then  a  court  is  a  radial  centre  for 
all  the  privacy  and  friendliness  of  home  life.  At 
Longleat,  on  the  other  hand,  not  a  room  faces 
the  open  areas  ;  every  one  of  them  looks  through 
mullioned  windows  over  pleasant  landscapes. 
This  follows  an  English  tradition,  while  those 
areas  were  pure  Italian,  and  quite  unsuited  to  the 
needs  of  English  country  life. 

E.  M.  Barry,  R.A.,  in  his  "  Lectures  on 
Architecture,"  gives  a  good  analysis  of  the 
exterior  work  at  Longleat,  where  Italian  taste 
is  very  evident.  Indeed,  but  for  the  mullions 
and  a  few  other  peculiarities,  we  might  almost 
believe  ourselves  to  be  in  presence  of  an  Italian 
palace.  "  We  have  the  three  orders  superimposed, 
in  accordance  with  the  revived  Classic  custom  : 
first  the  Doric  ;  then  the  Ionic  ;  and  lastly  the 
Corinthian.  The  pilasters  are  well  executed, 
with  diameters  diminishing  from  the  lower  story 
to  the  higher.  Each  order  has  its  appropriate 
entablature  of  architrave,    frieze,    and    cornice. 


194  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

designed  with  due  subordination  of  parts,  and 
the  whole  is  crowned  with  a  regular  balustrade. 
The  pervading  principle  of  the  design  of  Long- 
leat  is  that  of  horizontalism.  Each  floor  is 
marked  clearly  and  decidedly  by  the  entablatures, 
and  each  story  is  distinguished  by  a  different 
order  of  pilasters.  There  is  a  central  entrance 
in  a  symmetrical  front,  and  a  very  few  additions 
and  suppressions  would  give  a  complete  Italian 
character  to  the  whole  composition. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  the  mullioned 
windows  so  dear  to  mediasvalists,  and  the  pro- 
jections common  in  Elizabethan  work.  These 
projections,  indeed,  are  very  pleasing,  and  serve 
to  redeem  the  front  from  flatness  and  insipidity. 
They  form  bay  windows,  moreover,  and  so 
increase  the  internal  space  as  well  as  the  cheer- 
fulness of  the  rooms,  and  they  mark  the  transi- 
tional character  of  the  design." 

Taken  as  a  whole,  Longleat  is  a  remarkable 
building,  and  its  Classic  details  have  a  refinement 
not  often  to  be  found  in  other  houses  of  the 
same  period.  There  are  critics  who  think  that 
Italian  craftsmen  may  have  been  employed,  just 
as  they  were  called  in  to  the  aid  of  the  brothers 
Adam  during  George  III.'s  reign  ;  and  it  is 
certain  that  as  early  as  Elizabeth's  time  Italians 
sought  work  in  different  countries,  accompanied 
by  skilled  architects,  like  Vignola,  who  not  only 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN   195 

stayed  in  France,  but  practised  his  art  there, 
leaving  work  which  had  a  powerful  influence 
at  a  later  date  over  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  It 
was  thus  that  the  revived  Classic  architecture  was 
taken  from  place  to  place,  to  renew  the  tutor- 
ship of  the  old  Roman  genius. 

To  understand  what  this  means,  let  us  imagine 
a  parallel  case.  Let  us  suppose  that  Elizabethan 
statesmen,  losing  confidence  both  in  their  own 
judgment  and  in  their  national  traditions,  sent 
themselves  back  to  school,  so  as  to  learn  from 
classical  antiquity  how  their  England  ought  to 
be  governed.  Lord  Burleigh,  let  us  say,  gave 
classic  opinions  to  his  Queen.  "  Madam,  it  were 
dangerous  to  act  thus,  because  Cassar  would  not 
have  sanctioned  it  ;  and  many  Greeks  would 
have  counselled  in  a  way  gently  at  odds  with 
your  Majesty's  present  wishes.  Plato,  were  he 
with  us  in  body  as  in  spirit,  would  show  toward 
this  Armada  a  noble  gentleness."  In  precisely 
this  temper  of  mind  Longleat  Hall  was  built,  its 
Italianised  style  drawing  principles  of  taste  from 
the  ruins  of  ancient  Rome.  England  was  told 
in  this  way  that  her  own  judgment  in  house- 
building, though  formed  by  centuries  of  toil, 
was  bad,  and  that  she  must  look  to  a  Southern 
country  for  help  and  common  sense.  Happily 
all  Elizabethan  architects  and  country  gentlemen 
were  not  of   this    opinion.     The   open   central 


196  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

courts  at  Longleat,  essentially  Southern  features 
based  on  Roman  customs,  were  not  generally 
adopted.  A  square  plan,  or  one  oblong  in  shape, 
was  preferred  by  Englishmen  ;  and  if  more 
rooms  were  needed  wings  were  built  at  each 
end,  and  the  space  between  them  was  left 
unenclosed.  E-shapcd  plans  were  formed  in 
this  way,  and  were  infinitely  better  than  the 
Longleat  plan,  with  damp  and  stale  air  bottled 
in  two  small  inner  spaces. 

This  said,  we  can  pass  on  to  other  charac- 
teristics. The  hall,  out  of  which  our  English 
house  plan  had  grown  since  Saxon  times,  was 
retained  by  the  Elizabethans ;  its  walls  were 
panelled  to  a  height  of  from  eight  to  ten  feet  ; 
and  above  this  wainscot  were  many  interesting 
things — armour,  family  portraits,  trophies  of 
various  kinds,  weapons,  stags'  heads,  and  so 
forth.  Near  the  entrance  was  a  fine  oak  screen, 
and  above  it  a  minstrels'  gallery  ;  at  the  other 
end  a  dai's  was  put  under  a  good  bay-window, 
the  sill  of  which  came  down  close  to  the  floor. 
Up  in  the  roof  were  elaborate  panels  of  moulded 
plaster,  or  oak  principals  and  hammer-beams. 

During  the  sixteenth  century  the  evolution 
of  ceiling  ornament  was  very  important.  At 
first — and  Thame  Park,  Oxfordshire  (p.  153), 
may  be  taken  as  an  example — the  main  divi- 
sions   of    a    ceiling   were    made    by   the    beams 


in. 


Staircase,  Burleigh,  NoRTHAMfToxsHiRE. 

Designed  by  John  Thorpe,  and  built  between  the  years  1575  and  1589. 

From  a  drawing  by  J.  Nash.  See  pages  201  and  202. 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN   197 

in  the  floor  above,  and  these  spaces  were  sub- 
divided by  means  of  plaster  ribs  having  a  slight 
projection.  But,  of  course,  joists  and  beams  in 
the  floor  above  could  be  treated  in  a  different 
manner,  and  sometimes  they  were  accepted  as 
wood  to  be  moulded  and  carved.  When  this 
happened  they  made  a  handsome  framework 
over  a  ceiling.  At  Layer  Marney,  Essex,  built 
in  153O5  another  method  was  tried  with  success, 
as  at  Hever  and  Allington  Castles,  Kent.  The 
aim  here  was  to  pattern  a  ceiling  with  raised 
and  varied  figures  ;  for  this  purpose  oak  ribs 
were  applied,  and  the  spaces  between  them 
filled  with  plaster.  Rich  plaster  cornices 
formed  part  of  the  decorative  scheme,  which 
needed  for  its  completion  not  only  good  panels 
of  carved  oak  on  the  walls,  but  Tudor  furni- 
ture, and  women  and  men  in  their  Tudor  cos- 
tumes. Then  a  room  was  a  picture,  its  back- 
ground strong  and  quiet,  and  the  foreground 
animated. 

At  a  later  date,  as  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  ribbed 
ceilings  were  usually  made  all  of  plaster,  some- 
times too  much  ornamented,  an  excess  of  deco- 
rative detail  being  then  a  characteristic,  like 
the  affected  language  which  Shakespeare  ridi- 
culed in  Osric.  Occasionally  pendants  were 
introduced  to  draw  attention  from  the  over- 
elaborated  patterns. 


igS  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

When   and   how  did  this   plasterwork  arise  ? 
We    come    upon    it    in    the    fifteenth    century, 
both    indoors    and  outdoors.       Sixty  years  ago, 
in   the  market-place  at   Newark,   Parker  saw  a 
timbered    house    ornamented    with    plaster  :    it 
dated  from  the  time  of  Edward  IV.  ;  one  large 
window  went  like    a    frieze   across    the   front  ; 
and  there  was  a   series  of   little   plaster   figures 
with  canopies  over  them.     Again,  at  Great  Chal- 
field,  a  beautiful  country  home  to  which  I  have 
already  drawn  your  attention  (p.  140),  the  great 
hall  had  its  ceiling  divided  into  squares  by  the 
main  timbers,  and  those  spaces  were  subdivided 
into  others  of  plaster,  with  bosses  at  the  inter- 
sections.    Thus    it    is    clear    that    ornamental 
plaster,    so   characteristic  of  Tudor  and    Eliza- 
bethan work,  was  in  England  a  feature  handed 
on  from  the  late  Gothic  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
And    it    may    be   followed   much    farther    than 
Shakespeare's    time.     For    example,  very    rich 
plaster  houses  were   built  in   towns   during  the 
last  decades  of  the  seventeenth  century.     Some 
were  wonderfully  ornate,  as  in  Ipswich,  where 
Bishop  Sparrow    built  himself  a    very  splendid 
one,  far  more  famous  to-day  in  books  than  his 
own  writings  are,  though  these  may  fill  divinity 
students    with    despair.     This    decorated    house 
was  very  well  sketched   by  William  Twopeny 
(p.    256),    and   many  writers   mention    it    as    a 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN    199 

good  example  of  artistic  plasterwork,  all  the 
more  interesting  because  its  lineage  may  be 
followed  back  to  the  reign  of  Henry  III. 

For  gypsum  was  employed  as  early  as  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  under  its  present  name, 
plaster  of  Paris.  Internal  walls  were  covered 
with  it,  then  polished  with  a  trowel  ;  and  as  to 
outside  walls  of  stone,  it  was  also  a  rule  to 
plaster  them.  Englishmen  having  a  great  dis- 
like for  the  natural  surface  of  masonry,  whether 
in  churches  or  in  houses.  But  from  this  bad 
custom  ornamental  plaster  ceilings  were  gradually 
evolved  ;  and  concerning  them  I  have  only  one 
more  fact  to  mention.  It  is  often  believed  that 
pendants  on  ceilings  date  from  Elizabeth's  time, 
but  some  are  older  than  that."  In  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.  pendants  were  occasionally  intro- 
duced, though  square  bosses  were  more  typical 
of  the  Tudor  style. 

We  pass  on  now  to  the  staircase.  One  writer 
gives  the  following  traits  in  his  account  of  Eliza- 
bethan mansions  : 

"  A  broad  staircase  of  oak  is  a  special  feature, 
with  its  heavily-carved  newels,  pierced  balus- 
trading,  and  rich  carving.  It  is  generally 
placed  in  connection  with  the  hall,  and  lends 
to  the  interior  an  air  of  spaciousness  and  dignity. 
Its  importance  arises  from  the  fact  that  the 
chief  living-rooms    were   often  placed    on    the 


200  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

upper  floor,  and  therefore  demanded  an  important 
means  of  approach.'* 

The  details  in  this  quotation  are  really  more 
Jacobean  than  Elizabethan.  Ornamental  stair- 
cases did  not  appear  in  England  until  towards 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  ;  "  where 
they  exist  of  such  a  form,"  says  Parker,  "  as, 
according  to  the  taste  of  later  days,  would  have 
required  a  baluster  ;  the  space  below  the  hand- 
rail is  usually  filled  up  with  plaster  instead  of 
an  open  balustrade,  as  at  Boughton  Malherbe, 
Kent."  It  was  during  the  seventeenth  century 
that  staircases  with  open  balustrades  came  into 
use,  as  at  Crewe  Hall,  Cheshire.  Here  there 
is  a  fine  example,  entirely  of  oak,  elaborately 
worked  and  carved,  and  of  excellent  and  sound 
design  and  construction  (p.  192).  It  is  a  newel 
staircase,  built  around  a  central  well-hole.  "  The 
more  ordinary  plan  of  staircases  was  a  system 
of  long  flights,  few  in  number.  Here  we  have 
a  different  principle,  and  it  is  interesting  to 
notice,  again,  that  it  is  a  principle  commonly 
followed  by  Italian  architects.  They  did  not, 
indeed,  form  well-holes,  as  at  Crewe.  •  .  ,  The 
Italians  built  for  the  most  part  stone  staircases 
with  a  solid  central  pier,  and  stairs  around  it 
in  numerous  short  flights.  Here  also  (at  Crewe 
Hall)  we  have  numerous  flights;  but  the  pier 
is  replaced  by  a  well-hole,  with  massive  wooden 


Staircase,  Aldermaston,  Berkshire. 
From  a  drawing  by  J.  Nash.  See pa^e  201. 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  201 

newels  at  the  four  angles.  The  staircase  at  Crewe 
is  not  only  beautiful  architecturally,  but  is  also 
very  easy  and  convenient.  It  occupies,  more- 
over, but  little  space,  being  not  more  than 
twenty-four  feet  square  from  wall  to  wall,  while 
the  height  of  the  story  is  twenty  feet.  The 
shortness  of  the  flights  and  the  frequency  of 
the  landings  secure  great  ease  in  ascending,  and, 
from  the  compactness  of  the  plan,  no  unnecessary 
distance  is  traversed."  * 

This  staircase  belongs  to  the  Stuart  period, 
Crewe  Hall,  Cheshire,  dating  from  1636— the 
year  when  it  was  finished.  By  way  of  contrast 
I  give  two  other  examples :  a  staircase  at 
Burleigh,  Northants,  pure  Elizabethan  (p.  196), 
and  another  at  Aldermaston,  Berkshire,  which  is 
very  much  nearer  to  the  Stuart  work  at  Crewe 
Hall.  At  Crewe  the  handsome  newels,  carved 
and  panelled,  are  surmounted  by  heraldic 
animals  with  their  cognisances  ;  at  Alder- 
maston, too,  the  same  kind  of  craftsmanship 
is  found  (Plate  49),  but  the  newels  are  pedestals 
for  emblematic  figures.  There  is  a  profusion  of 
carved  ornament  ;  and  Joseph  Nash  has  put 
in  a  lady  and  child  to  denote  the  feminine 
spirit  of  this  art.  At  Burleigh,  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  a  martial  character  in  the  stern 

*  "Lectures    on    Architecture,"  by  E.  M.  Barry,   R.A., 
pp.  324  and  325. 


202  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

discipline  shown  by  an  excellent  architect, 
JohnJ.hftrpe,  whose  name,  somehow,  is  not  so 
well  known  as  it  ought  to  be.  /rHe  built  Holland 
House,  Kensington,  in  1607,  and  Burleigh, 
Northants,  between  1575  and  1587.  It  will 
be  worth  your  while  to  study  this  stone  staircase 
detail  by  detail.  All  the  arched  forms  are 
admirably  designed,  and  their  simple  ornamenta- 
tion is  not  weakened  by  twists  and  flourishes. 
The  patterns  are  geometrical,  mainly  squares 
and  circles  linked  together  and  of  varied  size. 
And  Thorpe  knew  that  as  decorative  details 
chattered,  his  art  had  also  to  be  silent  in  plain 
spaces,  so  he  left  the  walls  nearly  bare,  and 
gave  a  simple  floor  to  each  landing.  There  is 
nothing  for  a  hand  to  rest  upon ;  hence  we  walk 
in  thought  down  the  middle  of  the  steps. 
This  would  not  be  pleasant  now,  in  these  days 
of  lifts,  and  perhaps  you  may  wonder  how  this 
Burleigh  staircase  might  be  kept  warm  on  a 
cold  day. 

When  viewed  from  outside,  as  in  another 
drawing  by  Joseph  Nash  (p.  204),  Burleigh  has 
a  magnificent  air  of  its  own,  for  there  is  some- 
thing unusual  in  its  Elizabethan  mixture  of  Gothic 
and  Classic  features.  To  the  architect,  John 
Thorpe,  Gothic  was  still  a  living  and  vigorous 
style,  but  in  spirit  rather  than  in  structural 
anatomy  ;  and,  further,  his  mediaeval  preferences 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  203 

were  not  entirely  English.  Thorpe,  indeed, 
seems  to  have  divided  his  time  between  Paris 
and  England ;  he  certainly  practised  in  France, 
and  there  became  familiar  both  with  the  work 
done  by  Vignola  during  the  reign  of  Francis  I. 
and  with  the  slanting,  pyramidal  slate  roofs,  that 
gave  so  much  charm  to  French  chateaux  and 
country  houses.  These  tall  roofs,  technically 
known  as  hipped  roofs,  were  a  legacy  to  the 
French  Renaissance  from  Gothic  architecture 
as  developed  in  France,  and  from  them,  we 
may  suppose,  Thorpe  borrowed  his  idea  for  the 
chisel-formed  structure  with  which  he  finished 
his  clock-tower  at  Burleigh.  It  rises  up 
like  a  spire,  like  many  a  roof  that  French- 
men built  on  round  and  octagonal  towers, 
as  in  the  Chiteaux  d'Azy-le-Rideau,  Indre-et- 
Loire. 

Again,  Thorpe  was  very  well  pleased  to  flirt 
with  the  new  style  coming  from  Italy,  yet 
he  tried  not  to  enforce  the  horizontal  lines 
characteristic  both  of  Classic  architecture  and 
of  English  Gothic  during  its  last  period.  This, 
too,  may  be  seen  at  Burleigh.  Instead  of  using 
the  Elizabethan  chimney-stacks  of  cut  brick- 
work, with  shafts  carried  up  boldly,  he  treated 
these  things  in  a  Classical  manner,  with  orders ; 
but  side  by  side  with  this  parade  of  the  new 
style,  confirmed  and  made   more  noticeable  by 


204  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

his  use  of  semicircular  arches  and  columns  which 
are  not  Gothic,  we  find  that  certain  features 
common  in  Tudor  buildings  are  lengthened 
out.  so  as  to  express  a  Gothic  tendency  to 
upward  growth  and  height.  Thus  the  mul- 
lioned  windows  are  tall  and  narrow,  but  not 
arranged  in  many  graceful  tiers,  as  in  the  oriels 
at  Cowdray  House,  Sussex  (p.  147)  ;  they  have 
never  more  than  one  transom,  and  it  is  left  out 
when  the  windows  cannot  be  made  as  long  and 
slim  as  Thorpe's  aim  would  wish  them  to  be. 
Now  this  should  be  noted  as  very  remarkable. 
In  England,  since  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
evolution  of  muUioned  windows,  when  not 
designed  as  at  Cowdray,  is  plainly  in  the  direc- 
tion of  horizontal  effects.  Again  and  again 
they  form  a  kind  of  frieze  over  a  front  eleva- 
tion, while  at  Burleigh  they  are  elongated,  and 
their  shape,  too,  is  a  result  of  deliberate  and 
thoughtful  art. 

Look  at  the  illustration,  and  you  will  find  that 
your  eyes  travel  at  once  from  the  round  pillars 
of  the  arcade  upward  to  the  mullioned  windows, 
and  thence  to  the  ornamental  work  above. 
Here  some  horizontal  lines  are  put  in  with 
strong  mouldings,  but  Thorpe  has  broken  their 
course  by  means  of  a  vertical  recess  having  a 
semicircular  head  ;  and  the  result  is  that  the 
horizontal  lines  do  not  predominate,  but  act  as 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  205 

foils  to   the  many  vertical  ones  that  express  a 
feeling  for  ascending  growth. 

This  characteristic  is  even  more  strongly 
marked  in  the  clock-tower,  where  many  con- 
trasts between  arched  forms  and  perpendicular 
lines  are  used  for  the  same  purpose.  The  eye  is 
drawn  up  the  tower  to  that  high  structure  rising 
from  the  parapet  ;  but  your  attention  will  linger 
by  the  way,  attracted  by  semicircular  openings, 
a  clock,  and  six  niches  with  rounded  heads. 
You  remember,  no  doubt,  how  pilasters  were 
applied  to  the  front  elevation  at  Longleat 
(p.  188)  ;  and  this  will  enable  you  to  see  the 
difference  between  that  feature  and  a  similar 
one  at  Burleigh.  In  the  clock-tower,  on  both 
sides  of  the  niches,  pillars  are  built  out  from  the 
walls,  and  mark  three  stages  :  the  entrance, 
the  first  floor,  and  a  story  in  the  tower  itself, 
where  a  room  is  lighted  by  a  muUioned  bay- 
window,  that  expresses  very  well  the  spirit 
of  Thorpe's  style.  Indeed,  Thorpe  plays  with 
Classic  ideas  ;  they  are  toys  to  him  ;  while  at 
Longleat  we  meet  with  a  refined  architect  who 
believes  firmly  in  Italian  ideals  of  style,  though 
he  has  to  accept  bay-windows  and  muUions  out 
of  respect  for  his  client's  wishes.  Thorpe,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  quite  EHzabethan  in  spirit. 
His  aim  is  to  translate  into  his  own  English 
some  Italian  ideas  that  he  has  picked  up,  maybe 


2o6  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

in  France  ;  and  he  is  fanciful  in  a  severe  way — a 
quality  to  be  seen  also  in  French  castles  of  the 
same  period. 

Englishmen  of  later  times  have  borrowed 
ideas  from  the  French  Renaissance.  They  did 
so  during  Victoria's  reign,  when  Mr.  E.  M. 
Barry  designed  the  Temple  Chambers  on  the 
Victoria  Embankment,  London,  and  when  tall 
French  roofs  became  fashionable.  Writing  about 
them  in  1880,  the  late  Mr.  J.  J.  Stevenson  said  : 

"  All  about  London  now  they  break  up  the 
modest  roof-lines  of  the  older  architecture. 
They  are  apt  to  look  pretentious  here,  as  there 
is  neither  tradition  nor  convenience  to  justify 
them,  for  they  make  the  neighbouring  chimneys 
smoke,  and  when  stuck  on  the  top  of  houses  al- 
ready of  seven  stories  they  compel  their  chimneys 
to  be  carried  so  high  that  they  cannot  be  swept. 
They  are  dangerous  for  fire.  Constructed  of 
wood,  and  rising  high  above  the  party-walls 
separating  houses,  flames  spread  with  the  wind 
from  one  high  roof  to  another.  .  .  .  On  houses 
in  the  country  they  make  hard,  shiny  black 
spots  in  the  landscape,  for  our  slates  are  not  so 
beautiful  as  the  French.'' 

Thorpe  made  better  use  of  his  French  ideas, 
translating  them  into  English. 

From  Burleigh  we  now  pass  to  WoUaton, 
Nottinghamshire,  built    in   1580,   the    architect 


I 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  207 

being  R.  Smithson.  You  will  see  at  once  that 
there  are  points  of  resemblance  between  the  two 
mansions  (p.  208).  Smithson,  like  Thorpe,  builds 
chimneys  in  a  Classical  manner  ;  he  is  not  less 
fond  of  mullioned  windows,  only  he  makes 
them  wider  ;  he  decorates  his  walls  with  pilasters 
and  niches,  but  in  a  way  different  from  Thorpe's ; 
and  both  architects  show  clearly,  each  in  his 
own  manner,  that  a  level  and  uniform  front  is 
a  thing  detestable  to  them.  They  have  no 
sympathy  at  all  for  a  regulated  style  which  is 
always  on  its  best  behaviour,  like  an  official 
at  the  coronation  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 

You  may  easily  imagine  what  Thorpe  and 
Smithson  would  think  of  such  a  Classic  thorough- 
fare as  Gower  Street,  with  its  dull,  practical, 
flat-faced  houses  all  in  a  line  on  each  side,  as 
stiff  as  soldiers  are  in  dull  overcoats  when  stand- 
ing at  attention  on  a  frosty  day.  How  a  street 
like  this  came  to  be  built  in  a  city  famous  for 
its  damp  discomforts,  and  therefore  in  need  of 
picturesque,  gay  architecture,  would  astonish 
those  Elizabethans,  Smithson  and  Thorpe,  if 
they  could  revisit  the  glimpses  of  our  London 
moon.  "  Do  you  think,"  they  might  ask,  "  that 
London  in  our  day  built  fine  timber  houses 
without  knowing  their  danger  ?  They  were 
loved  because  of  their  brightness,  and  bright- 
ness all  day  long  was  worth  a  bad  fire  now  and 


2o8  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

then.  And  what  have  you  done  with  all  your 
opportunities  ?  London  to  us  now  seems  to  be 
ashamed  of  all  the  many  styles  to  be  found  in 
her  million  streets,  for  these  different  ways  of 
building  are  huddled  together  anyhow,  so  that 
no  eye  can  find  harmony.  Each  street  is  a 
drama  with  many  copied  scenes  and  acts,  all 
taken  from  well-known  plays  and  put  together  at 
random.  We  find  in  your  Gower  Street,  where 
one  poor  thing  is  repeated  a  great  many  times, 
some  new-made  buildings  in  a  Gothic  manner  ; 
done,  in  faith,  with  cunning  workmanship,  but 
how  came  they  to  be  built  there  ?  And  is  the 
rest  of  the  street  to  be  pulled  down  ?  Why 
this  bright  patch  of  Gothic  in  the  midst  of  your 
uninspired,  town-bred  Classic  ?  We  confess  to 
be  better  pleased  hard  by,  in  Bedford  Square. 
The  garden  is  delightful,  and  the  Classic  houses 
around  it  have  style.  They  are  said  to  be  as 
old  as  Adam,  and  this  surprised  us  much,  till 
we  were  told  that  our  thoughts  in  this  matter 
should  be  given  to  the  brothers  Adam,  archi- 
tects of  a  much  later  time  than  ours.  They 
had  much  talent,  though  their  ornament  is 
weak,  and  used  on  too  many  things.  We  find 
their  festoons  of  husks  on  pediments,  and  also 
on  sugar-bowls ;  and  these  sugar-bowls  may 
have  on  each  side  the  very  same  ram's  head 
with  which  a  marble  fireplace  may  be  decorated. 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN   209 

Yet  we  must  not  speak  amiss.  The  windows 
in  Bedford  Square  have  a  tallness  that  gives 
pleasure  ;  and  round-headed  doorways  with  fan- 
lights, and  the  whole  arched  openings  dressed 
with  blocks  of  cut  stone,  prevent  the  flat  brick 
elevations  from  being  dull.  And  the  central 
houses  on  each  side  of  the  square,  coloured, 
pilastered,  and  with  pediments,  these  are  good, 
though  we  know  not  why  Englishmen  at  any 
time  should  have  preferred  rows  of  uniform 
houses  to  a  symmetrical  disorder,  such  as  we 
Elizabethans  loved.  Had  we  built  a  Bedford 
Square,  we  should  have  placed  at  each  corner 
a  towered  wing  with  three  stories,  and  another 
on  the  ground  floor.  Behind,  well  recessed,  we 
should  have  put  a  range  of  buildings  which  on 
a  plan  would  have  made  with  the  wings  a  form 
like  the  letter  E,  the  short  middle  stroke  repre- 
senting a  great  house  built  out  from  the  rest,  and 
with  a  graceful  flight  of  steps  leading  up  to  a 
terraced  front  entrance.  Our  windows  would 
have  been  muUioned  and  transomed  ;  our  towers 
would  have  had  tall  gablets  fanciful  in  shape  ; 
and  our  Classic  pilasters  would  have  been  used 
as  at  Wollaton,  in  Nottinghamshire,  where 
you  will  see  the  orders  superimposed,  Doric 
on  one  story,  Ionic  on  the  next,  and  Corin- 
thian on  the  third,  all  treated  with  a  care 
that    an   English  craftsman  should   not  overdo. 


2IO  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

since    a    true  Italian  house  would  be  astray   in 
England/' 

You  may  read  all  this,  and  more  besides,  in 
Elizabethan  architecture,  which  represents  a 
great  time  ;  for  it  shows  in  the  art  of  building 
the  very  same  national  spirit  that  makes  our 
Shakespearian  age  a  liberal  education  to  young  I 
and  old.  It  is  not  possible  for  Anglo-Saxons  to 
read  without  coming  in  touch  with  Elizabethan 
poets,  thinkers,  masters  of  statecraft,  and  sea- 
adventurers.  All  were  men  of  action,  and  all 
looked  out  upon  a  far  horizon  stretching  away 
beyond  England.  It  was  this  that  caused  them 
to  be  restless,  and  eager  to  adopt  new  things  ; 
they  were  colonists  in  thought,  who  conquered 
what  they  took,  and  in  their  own  way  made  it 
their  own.  Such  were  Shakespeare  and  Bacon ; 
merchants  were  fired  by  the  same  temper,  and 
seamen  also  ;  and  when  the  queen  travelled  from 
place  to  place  she  met  with  receptions  full  of  j 
dramatic  incident,  as  though  stage-managed  by  ■ 
a  London  playwright. 

With  this  spirit  in  the  air,  Thorpe,  Smithson, 
and  other  craftsmen  designed  their  houses.  It 
was  inevitable  that  they  should  be  of  their  time, 
not  in  merits  only,  but  in  shortcomings  also. 
Elizabethan  architecture  is  nearly  always  great 
in  idea,  but  there  is  in  it  a  want  of  balanced 
self-control.      Indoors,  for    example,  there  is  a 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  211 

profusion  of  ornament  very  different  from  the 
severer  charm  of  homeliness  in  the  best  Tudor 
houses  ;  and  as  to  the  sumptuousness  and  elegance 
of  Jacobean  mansions,  they  continue  the  Eliza- 
bethan manner,  but  their  Classical  features  are 
at  times  nearer  to  the  Renaissance. 

Still,  it  is  a  mistake  to  mark  a  separation  be- 
tween Elizabethan  and  Jacobean,  because  they 
denote  the  history  of  one  transitional  style  which 
never  came  to  maturity.  It  might  be  called 
Tudor-Classic,  its  Gothic  characteristics  being 
those  which  came  into  Tudor  art  from  the 
Perpendicular  style  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
Nothing  is  more  troublesome  to  the  general 
public  than  the  subdivision  of  styles  into  many 
periods.  People,  for  instance,  began  to  talk  of 
Edwardian  architecture  as  soon  as  Queen  Victoria 
died,  as  though  our  architects  had  all  adopted 
new  methods  of  work.  Similarly  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  talk  about  Jacobean,  and  many 
persons  are  in  terror  lest  they  should  speak  of  a 
James  I.  mansion  as  Elizabethan.  Yet  Eliza- 
beth died  in  1603,  and  her  successor  just 
twenty-two  years  later,  so  the  only  thing  which 
architects  could  do  in  that  short  time  was  to 
develop  the  Italianised  Tudor  style  now  known 
as  Elizabethan. 

To    make    these   points    clear    I    am    giving 
several  illustrations,  beginning  with  a  picture  of 


212  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Crewe  Hall,  built  between  1615  and  1636.  If 
you  compare  this  fine  mansion  with  Wollaton, 
which  dates  from  1580,  you  will  pass  from  the 
thirty-eighth  year  of  Elizabeth's  reign  to  the 
eleventh  of  Charles  I.  Well,  what  changes  took 
place  in  the  outward  look  of  country  seats  during 
those  fifty-six  years  ?  You  will  see  at  a  glance 
that  Wollaton  and  Crewe  belong  to  the  same 
school  of  thought,  their  fronts  having  very 
similar  projections,  and  very  similar  gable-like 
ornaments  ;  there  is  the  same  wealth  of  win- 
dows, with  numerous  mullions  and  transoms, 
the  only  differences  being  that  some  windows 
at  Crewe  Hall  are  narrower,  and  some  others 
project  into  good  oriels.  Then,  as  regards  the 
Classic  features,  there  are  many  differences 
here,  and  yet  the  general  effect  is  the  same, 
approximately,  showing  how  two  Englishmen 
made  use  of  quotations  from  Italian  writers  on 
Roman  architecture. 

I  have  chosen  the  word  "  quotation  "  because 
neither  architect  wished  to  be  a  thoroughgoing 
copyist.  The  one  at  Crewe  was  not  at  home 
with  Classic  orders  and  pilasters,  so  he  employed 
them  only  for  the  main  entrance,  and  tried  to 
show  the  same  moderate  Classic  feeling  else- 
where as  in  the  elevations,  where  the  spirit 
of  his  design  was  gently  horizontal.  Further, 
selecting  chimneys  of  red  moulded  brick,  and  a 


«  c  t      .  t 


1       c  c 


c       cc,c,<:c,t,tctc 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  213 

mixture  of  brick  and  stone  for  the  outside  walls, 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  be  homelike  in  a  good 
English  way  ;  and  although  he  used  gables 
timidly  on  the  house  itself,  he  put  them  gladly 
on  the  outbuildings,  both  in  simple  forms  and 
in  the  curved  and  fantastic  shapes  that  Eliza- 
bethan taste  had  invented  for  him.  This 
architect,  then,  wished  to  fuse  together  the  two 
principles  of  English  and  Italian  work.  And  it 
is  worth  noting  that  he  chose  one  Italian  idea 
altogether  opposed  to  English  common  sense, 
namely,  an  open  court  for  lighting  rooms, 
similar  to  the  one  which  we  studied  at  Long- 
leat.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  mediaeval  in 
his  liking  for  a  large  hall.  To  this  room  he 
gave  much  dignity  and  importance,  and  close  to 
it  he  put  the  withdrawing-room,  called  by 
tradition  the  "  Carved  Parlour."  The  upper 
part  of  this  hall  is  lit  by  an  oriel  and  marked  by 
a  dai's,  while  at  the  lower  end  is  a  handsome 
screen  of  carved  oak.  "  We  find,  in  relation  to 
this  screen,"  says  Mr.  E.  M.  Barry,  R.A.,  "  the 
old  arrangement  of  the  passage  with  a  buttery- 
hatch  behind  it,  communicating  with  the 
offices,  and  there  are  openings  in  the  upper  part 
of  the  screen  which,  taken  in  connection  with 
the  peculiar  design  of  the  top,  lead  irresistibly  to 
the  conclusion  that  above  the  passage  there  was 
the  traditional  ministrels'  gallery  overlooking  the 


214  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

hall.  The  ceiling  of  the  dining-hall  is  designed 
with  great  intricacy,  and  is  executed  in  plaster, 
with  pendants  boldly  treated.  The  walls  are 
wainscoted  to  a  height  of  about  eight  feet,  and 
there  is  a  large  fireplace  in  the  middle  of  one  of 
the  side  walls."  * 

Something  must  be  said  now  about  the  Classic 
orders,  since  they  give  character  to  all  Renais- 
sance buildings.  The  word  "  order "  applies 
to  a  column,  with  its  base,  shaft,  and  capital, 
supporting  an  entablature  of  architrave,  frieze, 
and  cornice.  There  are  said  to  be  five  orders, 
each  with  its  own  characteristics  :  Doric,  Ionic, 
Corinthian,  Tuscan,  and  Composite ;  but  the 
two  last,  sometimes  called  the  two  Roman  orders, 
are  little  more  than  variations,  the  Tuscan  of 
Doric,  and  the  Composite  of  Corinthian. 

The  Corinthian  is,  perhaps,  the  easiest  for 
laymen  to  identify,  because  of  its  capital,  in 
which  spiral  volutes  f  spring  from  a  crown  of 
acanthus  leaves  that  surround  the  bell  of  the 
capital.  There  are  in  all  three  rows  of  leaves, 
eight  in  each  row ;  those  in  the  third  row 
support  eight  small  open  volutes,  four  of  which 
are  under  the  four  horns  or  points  of  a  hollowed 
abacus,  an  abacus  being  the  uppermost  member 

*  "Lectures  on  Architecture,"  p.  323. 

t  A  volute  may  be  described  as  a  horn  or  curl  of  moulded 


stone. 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  215 

of  a  capital — the  thing  upon  which  the  super- 
imposed weight  rests. 

The  Greek  abacus  resembles  a  tile  in  the  Doric 
order,  a  tile  quite  plain  and  square  ;  in  Roman 
Doric  the  upper  edge  has  an  ogee  moulding  and 
a  fillet.  In  Grecian  Ionic  the  upper  edge  of  an 
abacus  has  a  thin  moulding,  an  ovolo  or  an  ogee, 
sometimes  sculptured,  and  usually  without  a  fillet 
above  it  ;  while  in  Roman  Ionic  there  is  a  fillet. 
A  Corinthian  abacus  has  hollowed  sides,  and  the 
angles  made  by  the  hollows  are  cut  off ;  it  is 
under  them  that  four  acanthus  leaves  curl. 
Again,  although  the  Corinthian  order  is  placed 
among  the  Greek  orders,  it  is  more  Roman  than 
Greek,  because  it  appeared  in  Greece  under 
Roman  masters,  who  loved  it  always  for  its 
magnificence.  It  was  a  symbol  of  life  in  Rome, 
sumptuous  and  full  of  pomp.  If  laymen  re- 
member that  the  Corinthian  order  has  an 
abacus  with  hollowed  sides  and  a  capital  en- 
riched with  acanthus  leaves,  they  will  recognise 
this  form  of  Classic  architecture  in  a  great  many 
English  buildings. 

A  capital  in  the  Ionic  order  is  also  easy  to 
identify,  having  spiral  curls  that  project  beyond 
a  column's  shaft.  A  Doric  capital  is  a  mere 
projection  under  the  square  abacus.  In  Grecian 
Doric  a  column  has  no  base,  while  in  Roman 
Doric  there  is  generally  a  base.     Rome,  again, 


2i6  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

after  adapting  the  Grecian  Doric  and  Ionic,  and 
after  making  the  Corinthian  order  pre-eminently 
their  own,  formed  two  other  orders — the  Tuscan 
and  the  Composite.  Tuscan  is  noted  for  its 
simplicity.  It  was  not  employed  by  the  Greeks. 
Though  a  variation  from  the  Doric  order,  its 
columns  are  never  fluted,^  there  are  no  tri- 
glyphsf  in  the  frieze,  and  the  entablature  is  always 
simple  and  without  any  enrichment.  Tuscan  is, 
in  fact,  the  antithesis  of  the  Composite  order, 
which  the  Romans  invented  by  placing  the 
upper  part  of  the  Ionic  capital  upon  the  lower 
part  of  the  Corinthian,  so  that  yo,u  find  under 
the  abacus  those  projecting  spiral  volutes  that 
belong  to  Ionic  capitals,  and  below  them  the 
Corinthian  leaves. 

These  general  facts  are  given  as  a  guide  to 
laymen  who  cannot  take  pleasure  in  English 
architecture  without  some  hints  to  guide  them 

*  Flutes  :  These  are  hollows  or  channels  cut  perpendicularly 
in  the  shafts  of  columns  and  pilasters.  They  are  used  in  all 
the  orders  except  the  Tuscan.  In  Doric  columns  there  are 
twenty  flutes^  separated  by  a  sharp  edge  or  arris;  in  the  other 
orders,  Tuscan  excepted,  a  column  has  twenty-four  flutes^ 
separated  by  a  small  fillet. 

t  Triglyphs  :  An  ornament  used  in  a  Doric  frieze,  con- 
sisting of  three  vertical  angular  flutes,  or  channels,  separated 
by  narrow  flat  spaces;  they  have  notched  ends,  and  are  said 
to  be  a  reminiscence  in  stone  of  wooden  beams  belonging  to 
an  earlier  architecture.  Triglyphs  appear  frequently  in  our 
English  transitional  styles. 


<  I      < 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  217 

through  the  shoals  of  Classicism.  Since  the 
sixteenth  century  the  Roman  orders  have  in- 
fluenced our  buildings  ;  and  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  thanks  to  Stuart  and  Revett 
mainly,  pure  Greek  architecture  became  known, 
and  its  power  soon  passed  from  architects  to 
suburban  builders.  St.  George's  Hall,  Liverpool, 
is  a  Greek  structure,  forlornly  out  of  place  in 
an  English  seaport  ;  and  St.  Pancras  Church, 
London,  is  another  ambitious  attempt  to  be 
Athenian  under  a  Northern  sky.  It  is  thus  im- 
possible for  us  to  get  away  from  Classic  archi- 
tecture, owing  to  the  mania  for  copying  which 
came  to  England  in  the  sixteenth  century.  We 
must  make  the  best  of  it,  and  try  to  keep  in 
mind  those  characteristics  of  style  which  are 
easy  to  remember. 

There  are  certain  forms  of  ornament,  for 
example,  and  you  will  find  here,  in  a  picture  by 
Joseph  Nash,  the  use  made  of  triglyphs  in  the  Long 
Gallery  at  Hatfield,  dating  from  1 6 1 1 .  Triglyphs 
really  belong  to  a  Doric  frieze,  but  here  they  are 
employed  above  Ionic  capitals,  and  this  may  be 
done  when  pilasters  are  used.  The  Greeks  them- 
selves set  this  example,  while  the  Romans  did 
not  (as  a  rule),  giving  a  pilaster  the  same  capital 
and  base  as  a  column  would  have  had  in  this 
order  or  that.  Greek  pilasters  were  of  the  same 
breadth  from  bottom  to  top,  while  in  Roman 


2i8  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

work  they  often  diminished  in  size  upwards,  just 
as  they  do  at  Hatfield.  Further,  above  the  tri- 
glyphs  at  Hatfield,  which  are  very  well  spaced, 
you  will  find  a  projecting  cornice,  and  from  its 
under-side  hang  a  great  many  guttce^  the  history 
of  which  is  entertaining.  The  Greeks,  in  their 
first  temples,  built  out  their  cornices  to  throw 
off^  the  wet ;  raindrops  gathered  upon  the  under- 
side and  sparkled  ;  this  decorative  eff^ect  was 
noticed  and  remembered  ;  and  at  last  those 
guttce  were  made  in  stone  to  represent  hanging 
spots  of  water.  This  ornament  was  used  in 
Doric  entablatures  on  the  under  side  of  the 
mutules  of  their  cornices,  and  beneath  the  taenia 
of  the  architrave,  under  the  triglyphs.  J.  J. 
Stevenson  spoke  of  guttae  as  spots  of  wet  petrified 
into  stone — "petrified  raindrops,"  briefly;  and 
these  ornaments  you  will  see  at  Hatfield. 

In  the  hall  at  Wollaton,  illustrated  here  (p.  224), 
triglyphs  and  guttae  appear  again,  but  the  spaces 
between  the  triglyphs  are  ornamented,  and  the 
pillars  are  meant  to  be  Roman  Doric.  In  Roman 
buildings,  between  the  triglyphs  of  Doric  friezes, 
there  is  often  a  decoration  of  carved  ox-skulls, 
with  a  sort  of  garland  hanging  around  the 
horns  ;  and  these  singular  things  were  emblems 
of  sacrifice  to  the  gods.  They  are  not  pretty, 
like  the  goat-heads  so  familiar  to  all  students 
of  Robert  Adam's  work.     Among  other  Roman 


ELIZABETHAN  AND  JACOBEAN  219 

ornaments,  like  the  acanthus  scroll,  with  a  con- 
tinuous stem  and  with  spirals  and  rosettes, 
arabesques  should  be  remembered,  for  those  in 
the  Baths  of  Titus  had  a  great  effect  on  fresco 
decoration  during  the  Renaissance.  It  will 
be  remembered,  also,  that  the  Greeks  were 
particularly  fond  of  the  anthemion,  or  honey- 
suckle, their  favourite  motif  for  surface  decora- 
tion ;  and  I  give  a  page  of  illustrations  to  show 
other  Classical  ornaments,  like  the  bay-leaf  gar- 
land, the  egg-and-tongue,  the  leaf-and-dart,  the 
bead,  and  the  guilloche,  all  common  in  Anglo- 
Classic  mouldings.    (Plate  60,  facing  page  272.) 

For  the  rest.  Englishmen  at  first  missed  many 
qualities  of  self-control  that  belong  to  Classical 
ornament,  and  scattered  over  their  ceilings  a 
wonderful  amount  of  pattern,  as  in  Elizabethan 
work.  Rich  laces  and  splendid  velvets  got  into 
the  minds  of  architects  long  ago,  just  as  they 
turned  painters  into  colourists. 

Movement,  brightness,  colour,  space :  these 
you  will  find  in  all  good  architecture  of  this 
period  ;  and  above  all,  perhaps,  in  the  famous 
long  galleries  by  which  the  wings  of  country 
houses  are  joined  together.  Here  are  the  dimen- 
sions of  some  important  examples  : 

Aston  Hall  Qacobean)  :    136  ft.  long,  18  ft. 
wide,  and  1 6  ft.  high. 


220  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Montacute,  Somersetshire  (Elizabethan)  : 
170  ft.  long  by  20  ft.  6  in.  wide.  Ij 

Hardwick  (a.d.  1590-97)  :  166  ft.  long, 
22  ft.  5  in.  wide,  and  26  ft.  high. 

Charlton,  Wiltshire  (Jacobean)  :  130  ft.  long 
by  22  ft.  wide. 

When  we  think  of  all  the  attractions  that 
English  homes  gathered  about  them  from  the 
days  of  Henry  VII.  to  those  of  Charles  I.,  it 
is  natural  that  we  should  think  of  that  period 
as  a  golden  age  in  house-building.  It  is  national, 
it  is  English  in  essentials  ;  and  we  shall  see  in 
the  next  chapter  that  although  great  English 
houses  ceased  to  be  English  during  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  our  domestical 
architecture  has  never  quite  lost  its  line  of 
descent  from  the  Middle  Ages.  This  fact  is 
proved  by  all  old  country  cottages,  with  their 
many  Gothic  features  ;  but  there  are  houses  of 
a  larger  type,  built  in  our  English  Renaissance 
manner,  to  which  accident  has  given  the  name 
of  Queen  Anne  ;  and  here  also  we  meet  with  a 
transitional  style,  partly  Classic,  partly  Gothic 
which  may  be  placed  side  by  side  with  Tudor- 
Classic — namely,  with  Elizabethan  arid  Jacobean 
houses. 


CHAPTER   XII 
THE  RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES 

SINCE  the  seventeenth  century  there  has 
been  so  much  confused  imitation  in  Eng- 
lish house  architecture  that  a  student  is 
harassed  by  an  erratic  theme  as  devious  as  a  golf- 
ball,  so  he  knows  not  what  to  do.  His  mind  is 
bunkered  here  and  bunkered  there,  now  in  a  vast 
Italianised  palace  which  never  should  have  been 
built  in  England,  then  in  an  Early  Gothic  castle 
with  slits  for  windows  dating  from  the  early 
decades  of  the  last  century.  No  sooner  does 
he  escape  from  these  troubles,  not  without 
thanksgiving,  than  his  golf-ball  subject  flies  off 
in  another  direction,  and  reaches  a  "  Queen 
Anne  house "  before  Queen  Anne's  time. 
What  does  this  mean  ?  What  is  a  plain  man 
to  think  ?  But  there  is  really  no  time  for 
questions  and  answers.  The  subject  moves  on 
always  in  a  most  wayward  manner,  ponderously 
Classic  at  one  moment,  wildly  Gothic  at 
another,  transitional  between  these  extremes ; 
there  are  revivals  of  one  style  and  counter- 
revivals    of   another  ;    and    joined  to    the§Q  w^ 

221 


222  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

find  a  cosmopolitanism  which  in  the  nineteenth 
century  tried  very  hard  to  be  omniscient.  No 
adventure  among  foreign  methods  and  ideals 
could  satisfy  it.  Byzantine  art  was  tried,  and 
Chinese  pagodas  were  taken  ;  mediaeval  castles 
were  built,  and  Greek  temples  put  up  as  con- 
cert halls  ;  Swiss  chalets  had  their  turn,  and 
Indian  bungalows  also ;  the  Scotch  Baronial 
style  competed  against  the  Flemish  Renais- 
sance, or  the  Rural  Italian,  or  the  French- 
Italian  ;  and  even  our  own  native  types  of 
house  were  not  forgotten. 

But  who  is  to  understand  this  chaotic  jumble 
of  styles  ?  If  a  battle  of  Waterloo  were  to  last 
for  three  centuries  no  historian  could  give  an 
account  of  its  progress.  And  we  find,  too, 
that  writers  are  afraid  of  that  Waterloo  of 
architectural  styles  which  began  in  England  at 
the  time  of  the  Renaissance  and  still  goes  on, 
dividing  our  architects  into  three  armies — 
Classics,  Goths,  and  followers  of  mixed  tradi- 
tions, partly  Gothic  and  partly  Classic.  After 
such  a  long  battle  there  are  no  doubt  many 
signs  of  reasonable  fatigue.  Indeed,  we  are 
enjoying  a  welcome  truce,  during  which  the 
rival  armies  steal  each  other's  beliefs  in  the  most 
friendly  manner,  so  that  we  find  Classic  houses 
built  by  soldiers  of  the  Gothic  regiments,  while 
muUions   and    bay-windows    are   designed   with 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES   223 

pleasure  by  those  who  rank  as  generals  in  the 
Classic  Brigade  of  Guards. 

Of  course,  these  signs  of  peace  may  not  be 
lasting.  One  remembers  that  Wellington's 
men  in  the  Peninsula  were  on  good  terms  with 
the  French  between  their  battles  ;  and  this 
may  be  the  present  position  of  our  Goths  and 
Classics.  Yet  their  war  may  be  over,  experi- 
ence having  taught  both  sides  that  when  several 
different  forms  of  architecture  have  been  re- 
conciled with  the  needs  and  customs  of  the 
same  nation's  daily  life,  reasons  for  quarrelling 
have  vanished  in  essential  compromises  all  round. 
This  we  may  believe,  and  it  gives  us  a  sort  of 
vantage-ground  upon  which  we  may  stand  to 
survey  the  last  three  hundred  years  of  battle. 

In  other  words,  as  the  best  work  done  to-day 
in  house  architecture  is  quiet  and  reasonable,  no 
matter  what  its  style  may  be,  we  are  not  called 
upon  to  pass  in  thought  through  all  the  strife 
and  turmoil  which  separates  our  peaceful  time 
from  the  Renaissance.  No  architect  now  would 
design  such  a  Classic  mansion  as  Castle  Howard, 
Yorkshire  (a.d.  17 14),  where  Sir  John  Vanbrugh 
sacrificed  comfort  and  use  to  monumental 
grandeur  ;  and  who  would  go  back  to  that 
foolish  lath-and-plaster  abbey  with  which 
Horace  Walpole  started  the  Gothic  revival  at 
Twickenham  in    1770  ?      At  a   later   date,  in 


224  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

1820,  James  Wyatt  tried  to  make  a  modern 
home  in  his  reproduction  of  a  mediaeval  monas- 
tery, and  this  wonderful  experiment  goes  by  the 
name  of  Wyatt's  "  Fonthill  Abbey."  Six  years 
later  Sir  Jeffrey  Wyatville  began  to  transform 
Windsor  Castle,  and  this  set  on  foot  a  craze 
for  castellated  mansions,  modern  within,  but 
with  battlements  and  turrets  outside,  all  in 
imitation  of  Edwardian  fortresses.  Nothing 
could  have  been  more  absurd.  Yet  the  Classic 
men  held  out  counter-attractions,  such  as  the 
St.  George's  Hall,  Liverpool,  by  H.  L.  Elmes 
(1815-47),  who  designed  an  ancient  Greek 
building  for  a  Northern  seaport,  when  he  might 
have  won  a  wider  reputation  by  placing  a 
Buddhist  temple  in  the  Scotch  Highlands,  or  a 
Chinese  palace  on  the  top  of  Snowdon.  Some 
writers  still  assure  us  with  pride  that  Elmes 
gave  us  the  most  perfect  design  of  the  Classical 
school.  "The  main  hall,''  says  one  critic, 
"  recalls  the  Roman  Therms.  Externally  a 
colonnade  and  portico  design  is  handled  with 
great  effect."  Poor  Liverpool  and  its  history 
are  not  to  be  thought  of,  you  see.  There  was 
a  rage  for  Greek  architecture,  so  buildings  after 
that  style  had  to  be  put  up  somewhere,  any- 
where, and  for  all  purposes,  whether  for  con- 
certs and  political  meetings  or  for  Christian 
prayer  ;  so  St.  Pancras  Church  was  built  in  one 


J     >     >   > 


J        J    J  15 


jy  1 


■t 


Interior  of  the  Hall,  Wollatox,  Notts.     Early  Renaissance  Period. 

Seeta^e  2 1 8. 


« 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES   225 

English  city,  St.  George's  Hall  in  another,  and 
a  National  Monument  was  begun  on  the  Calton 
Hill  at  Edinburgh.  The  New  Church  of  St. 
Pancras,  by  H.  W.  Inwood  (1794- 1843)  ^^^ 
built  in  1 8 19,  and  reproduced  in  many  respects 
the  Erechtheion  at  Athens. 

All  this  shows — and  I  give  only  a  few  exam- 
ples— that  historical  perspective  was  not  under- 
stood. Architecture  might  do  with  impunity 
whatever  was  suggested  by  a  copyist's  whims. 
And  there  was  nothing  to  choose  between  the 
rival  fanatics  of  style,  Goths  and  Classics  being 
equally  out  of  touch  with  their  own  times. 
Look,  for  instance,  at  the  British  Museum,  with 
its  quite  useless  portico,  and  its  size  and  bulk 
altogether  dwarfed  by  the  railings  in  front  of 
its  courtyard.  Such  was  the  ruling  taste 
between  the  years  1823  and  1847.  ^^^  archi- 
tect, Sir  Robert  Smirke,  was  responsible  also 
for  King's  College,  London,  built  in  1 831,  while 
a  contemporary  of  his,  William  Wilkins,  used 
a  Classic  adaptation  for  St.  George's  Hospital, 
London,  and  the  University  College.  Places 
of  amusement  were  also  put  up  in  the  same 
manner,  like  the  Hay  market  Theatre,  designed 
by  Nash,  the  brave  man  who  introduced  the 
age  of  stucco,  as  in  Regent  Street,  and  in 
many  great  houses  around  Regent's  Park. 

What  is  a  layman  to  think  of  all  this  ?     What 


226  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

use,  for  example,  can  a  portico  serve  in  our 
English  climate  ?  Why*  should  any  person 
wish  to  darken  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  by 
building  a  portico  between  them  and  the  fitful 
light  of  an  English  town  ?  It  took  two  hundred 
years  for  this  simple  question  to  dawn  upon  the 
minds  of  Classical  architects.  It  was  Inigo 
Jones  who  introduced  the  domestic  style  with 
pediments  and  porticoes,  the  earliest  example 
being  the  Duke  of  Devonshire's  villa-  at 
Chiswick,  an  imitation  of  Palladio's  villa  at 
Vicenza.  This  set  a  very  bad  example,  and 
its  influence  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Useless  porticoes  to  houses  were  then 
as  common  as  basement  offices  for  servants,  and 
both  evils  were  marks  of  high  rank.  Servants 
were  sent  below  because  they  were  not  good 
enough  to  live  on  a  ground  floor  ;  while 
porticoes  were  liked  because  they  had  what 
was  known  as  a  "  grand  air.''  A  Classic 
mansion  must  be  dignified  and  magnificent, 
and  these  qualities  were  never  united  to  utility 
and  convenience.  Under  this  false  system  a 
great  many  discomforts  could  be  dovetailed  into 
a  vast  space,  as  at  Holkham  Hall,  Norfolk, 
designed  and  built  by  W.  Kent  in  1730.  It 
is  a  vast  and  gloomy  structure  in  a  depressing 
part  of  Norfolk,  near  Wells-next-the-Sea.  The 
design  is  certainly  less   extravagant  than  Van- 

\ 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES  227 

brugh's  work  at  Blenheim  and  Castle  Howard, 
but  when  Holkham  is  compared  with  a  good 
Elizabethan  house  we  realise  a  sad  falling  off 
from  English  ideas  of  genial  homeliness. 
Indeed,  the  first  owner  of  Holkham  said  : 
"  It  is  a  melancholy  thing  to  stand  alone  in 
one's  own  country/'  The  noble  earl  bought 
this  opinion  at  a  very  high  price,  but  his 
architect  was  happy.  Shall  we  look  at  his/ 
plan  f  There  are  four  symmetrical  wings 
joined  to  a  large  symmetrical  body  ;  the 
distance  between  the  wings  measures  about 
215  ft.  ;  and  from  the  kitchen  to  the  dining- 
room,  as  a  crow  Jiies^  180  ft.  As  to  the 
main  building,  it  has  two  well-holes — two  inner 
little  courts  for  light — and  on  the  first  floor  we 
find  a  great  Italian  saloon  with  a  drawing-room 
on  each  side,  a  lofty  entrance  hall  with  galleries, 
several  bedrooms  and  dressing-rooms,  and  a 
statue  gallery  also.  The  inner  courts  for  light 
were  fashionable  then,  just  because  they  had 
an  Italian  character  at  variance  with  English 
needs.  Unreasonableness  dictated  the  rest  of 
the  plan,  leaving  people  to  find  at  their  leisure 
the  least  troublesome  way  of  getting  from  the 
wings  to  the  main  house. 

In  this  connection  one  may  tell  a  good  story 
about  Lord  Chesterfield.  His  friend  General 
Wade  got  Lord  Burlington  to  build  for  him  a 


228  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

house  in  the  fashionable  manner,  but  found  if 
anything  but  a  pleasant  dwelling-place.  The 
unhappy  General  did  not  know  what  to  do.  If 
he  lived  in  his  mansion  he  would  be  miserable, 
yet  the  outside  had  really  a  "  great  air,*'  which 
he  longed  to  admire  after  spending  so  much 
money  on  useless  show  and  pomp.  Chester- 
field laughed,  and  then  hit  upon  a  good  idea. 
"  Take  a  lodging  over  the  way,"  said  he,  "  and 
look  at  your  house  !  " — a  very  good  criticism 
on  this  form  of  Classic  architecture. 

Even  the  Classic  devotees  themselves  wearied 
at  last  of  their  un-English  work,  and  began  to 
sneer  a  little  at  the  "  Pediment  and  Portico 
Periods."  Then  Sir  Charles  Barry  (i 795-1 860) 
broke  away  from  useless  porticoes,  and  tried 
what  is  known  as  the  astylar  treatment  of 
design  ;  that  is,  a  treatment  of  fafades  without 
the  aid  of  columns,  as  in  such  Florentine  palaces 
as  the  Palazzo  Riccardi.  Barry,  in  the  Travel- 
lers' Club,  Pall  Mall,  was  influenced  by  the 
Pandolfini  Palace,  Florence,  while  the  Reform 
Club,  Pall  Mall,  made  known  his  admiration  for 
the  Farnese  Palace  at  Rome.  But  a  Gothic 
Revival  was  then  in  the  air,  and  to  the  same 
architect  we  owe  the  Houses  of  Parliament  ; 
they  were  begun  in  1840,  and  their  exterior 
work  was  made  a  careful  and  good  example  of 
Perpendicular  Gothic.     Thus  Sir  Charles  Barry 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES   229 

marks  two  important  things  in  modern  archi- 
tecture :  first,  he  gave  up  porticoes  because  they 
were  absurd  in  England,  and,  secondly,  he  used 
for  a  public  building  the  most  domestic  style  in 
our  English  Gothic,  the  style  to  which  our 
Tudor  houses  belong,  and  out  of  which  our 
Elizabethan  arts  came,  with  some  help  from 
Italian  ideas. 

From  that  time,  despite  a  few  reactions, 
English  Classic  architecture  at  its  best  has  not 
been  unfriendly  to  common  sense.  But,  un- 
happily, past  errors  do  not  die  out  in  archi- 
tecture as  in  other  arts  ;  they  stand  in  public 
places,  great  solid  things  in  brick  and  stone, 
warnings,  perhaps,  but  harmful  none  the  less 
to  a  nation's  judgment  and  taste,  as  familiarity 
does  not  breed  contempt  here  ;  it  reconciles  us 
to  many  strange  things.  When  we  pray  in  a 
Classic  church  why  do  we  not  think  of  the 
religions  under  which  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
won  and  lost  their  greatness  ?  There  can  be 
no  criticism  when  we  separate  a  style  in 
architecture  from  its  own  historic  associa- 
tions. If  laymen  would  only  recognise  this 
simple  fact  their  influence  over  architects  would 
soon  be  of  value  to  England,  for  they  would 
put  to  themselves  such  questions  as  the 
following  : 

I.  What  purpose  does  this  building  serve,  and 


/ 


230  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

is  the  style  of  its  architecture  in  accord  with  that 
purpose  ?  ^1 

2.  Is  England  so  poor  in  native  styles  that  she" 
cannot  now  put  up  a  national  building  without^^, 
help  from  Classical  ideals  f  HI 

These  questions  are  worth  attention,  because 
the  art  of  building  is  the  most  public  of  all  arts, 
and  ought  therefore  to  be  judged  by  practical 
tests  which  plain  men  can  understand  and  apply. 
Learned  writers  very  often  speak  as  though 
architecture  had  its  home  in  an  island  of  dreams, 
and  not  in  our  cities  and  country  places.  They 
pooh-pooh  the  popular  taste,  and  say  that  archi- 
tects ought  not  to  be  disturbed  in  their  work  by 
the  talk  of  "  garrulous  amateurs." 

Well,  architects  did  rule  for  many  genera- 
tions after  the  revival  of  Classic  styles,  and  with 
what  results?  The  late  Mr.  J.  J.  Stevenson 
replied  to  this  question.  He  was  an  excellent 
architect  himself,  and  had  no  feeling  of  ill-will 
towards  his  profession.  In  the  following  passage 
he  refers  to  the  use  of  Greek  architecture  in 
England  : 

"  As  practised  with  us,  it  was  cold  and 
formal  ;  and,  as  there  were  very  few  specimens 
to  copy  from,  and  only  the  most  perfect  of  these 
were  followed,  there  was  a  weary  sameness  in 
the  results.  The  sculpture  which  had  given 
life    and   interest  to  the  original  was  omitted  ; 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES  231 

colour  was  thought  vulgar  ;  and  the  general 
impression  of  one  of  those  Doric  porticoes  in 
our  climate,  in  any  weather,  but  especially  in 
an  east  wind  with  sleet  driving  through  it, 
was  dismal  and  depressing.  The  style  had 
also  the  serious  practical  disadvantage  for  our 
climate,  that  windows  were  supposed  to  be 
inadmissible.  As  it  was  impossible  wholly  to 
dispense  with  them,  they  were  ignored,  like 
vulgar  intruders  in  good  society,  and  treated  as 
if  no  one  was  expected  to  look  at  them,  as  plain 
holes  cut  in  the  wall,  without  any  ornament  or 
moulding  whatever.  This,  of  course,  only  made 
them  more  painfully  conspicuous.  Smuggled  in 
between  columns,  and  cutting  up  what  should 
have  been  their  solid  background  of  wall,  they 
became  vulgar  and  objectionable." 

What  a  scathing  criticism  1  Architects  did 
what  they  liked  in  those  days,  playing  dismal 
practical  jokes  on  a  careless  nation.  They  did 
not  even  understand  the  art  which  they  copied, 
since  they  left  out  its  colour  and  its  sculpture; 
and  all  this  happened  just  because  laymen  did 
not  put  to  themselves  the  test  questions  to 
which  I  have  referred. 

It  is  useful  to  arrive  at  this  point,  as  public 
buildings  are  still  put  up  in  styles  that  laymen 
ought  to  condemn  as  unnecessarily  un-English. 
It  rests  with  the  public  to  decide  whether  some 


232  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

national  form  of  architecture  ought  not  to  be 
used  for  all  public  work  ;  whether  patriotism 
in  this  art  should  not  hold  in  check  the  cos- 
mopolitanism which  has  long  been  thrust  upon 
us.  If  the  Tudor  style  will  give  us  a  noble 
building,  why  should  we  have  a  kind  of  Classic 
structure,  like  the  Home  and  Foreign  Offices 
built  by  Barry  and  Sir  Gilbert  Scott  (1860-70), 
and  condemned  to-day  by  architects  as  a  bad  com- 
promise between  modern  French  and  the  tradi- 
tional Italian  ideas  of  the  Renaissance  ?  Surely 
a  national  building  should  have  a  permanent 
national  interest,  like  that  which  has  given  our 
cathedrals  and  village  churches  their  glorious 
place  in  the  life  of  England. 

You  may  ask,  "  What  has  a  public  building 
to  do  with  the  English  house  ?  ''  Everything. 
In  the  first  place,  all  houses  are  public  buildings. 
Even  those  which  are  hidden  behind  walls,  or 
behind  trees  and  railings,  prove  this  by  their 
wish  to  screen  themselves  from  the  people's 
curiosity.  But,  apart  from  this,  the  styles 
chosen  for  great  national  buildings  set  the 
fashion  for  house  architecture.  Take  as  an 
example  the  work  done  by  Sir  Christopher 
Wren.  Wren's  opportunity  was  the  Great  Fire 
of  London  in  1666.  Had  he  been  in  sympathy 
with  English  forms  of  architecture  he  might 
have  done  much  to  repeat  in  brick  and  stone  the 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES  233 

beautiful  national  sentiment  represented  by  the 
old  timber  dwellings  just  burnt  down.  He 
would  have  said  to  himself :  ^'  London  grew  out 
of  her  own  past,  and  showed  this  in  her  houses 
and  churches.  It  is  my  duty  to  put  this  fact 
before  the  City  authorities,  and  to  do  what  I  can 
in  my  own  work  to  call  back  the  old  styles,  and 
make  them  at  home  in  a  new  and  safer  London.*' 
He  did  realise  one  important  side  of  this  great 
matter.  He  saw  that  London  ought  to  be 
planned  on  a  grand  scale,  and  we  suffer  now 
because  Wren's  plans  were  not  accepted,  for 
pecuniary  and  other  reasons.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  bent  in  architecture  was  not  English  ; 
neither  was  it  Palladian,  like  that  of  Inigo 
Jones.  Wren  was  in  love  with  that  form  of 
Classic  which  Frenchmen  had  adapted  from  the 
work  of  Vignola,  and  he  said  at  one  time  that 
he  "  would  have  given  his  skin  for  Bernini's 
design  for  the  Louvre,"  a  singular  confession. 
And  the  odd  thing  is  that  while  Wren  helped 
to  make  new  fashions  in  building  with  his  bor- 
rowed Classical  columns  and  details,  he  said  in 
simple  English  that  architecture  did  not  admit 
of  such  new  departures  ;  and  if  we  judge  him 
by  this  principle  his  own  work  is  condemned 
by  his  own  verdict. 

What    is    St.    Paul's    Cathedral    but   a    new 
fashion — a  break    in  the  historical    sequence  ot 


234  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

English  cathedral  churches  ?  Noble  as  it  is  in 
design,  has  it  the  poetry  of  Salisbury  or  the 
winning  grandeur  of  Durham  ?  Does  it  appeal 
to  the  English  people  like  Wells,  or  Lincoln, 
or  Peterborough  ?  Such  Gothic  churches  are 
English  and  national  in  a  Shakespearian  way, 
whereas  St.  PauFs  has  the  dignity  of  Milton's 
thoughts  when  they  appeal  to  us  in  Latin. 

Further,  did  we  gain  much  as  a  nation  by 
Wren's  secular  architecture  ?  At  Greenwich 
Hospital,  in  the  two  blocks  furthest  from  the 
river,  he  is  praised  for  his  stateliness  ;  and  in 
King  William's  palace  at  Hampton  Court  he 
certainly  united  a  feeling  for  home  with  a  royal 
dignity.  But  does  any  one  feel  here,  or  at  Marl- 
borough House,  Pall  Mall,  that  Wren  got  from 
the  Renaissance  any  qualities  equal  to  those 
which  he  might  have  found  in  English  work  ? 
"  For  the  charm  of  homeliness,"  says  J.  J. 
Stevenson,  "  nothing  can  surpass  the  houses  of 
the  Tudor  age,  with  their  mullioned  windows 
and  oak  carving "  ;  and  this  being  so.  Wren 
might  have  been  a  greater  man  had  he  carried 
on  the  Tudor  style  in  his  own  way.  But  there 
is,  no  doubt,  another  side  to  this  question.  Men 
of  genius  must  either  obey  the  spirit  of  their  age 
or  rebel  against  it,  and  Wren  was  free  to  make 
his  choice.  After  doing  so,  he  put  a  marvellous 
variety  into    his   designs   and   showed    that    his 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES  235 

strength  was  English.  All  critics  admit  this 
now,  even  those  who  own  that  the  first  two 
centuries  of  Classic  architecture  were  a  failure 
in  England,  because  they  did  not  improve  our 
English  ideals  of  home  life. 

To  put  the  matter  in  this  way  is  to  invite 
laymen  to  look  at  buildings  as  pieces  of  history 
much  more  valuable  than  written  words,  because 
they  invite  daily  attention  in  our  public  places. 
There  they  are  waiting  to  be  read,  and  show- 
ing how  the  minds  of  Englishmen  have  been 
swayed  by  various  schools  of  thought.  And  it 
is  with  buildings  as  with  books.  Some  are  for 
students  only,  while  others  belong  to  the  nation 
at  large,  and  prove  that  the  best  critic  and  the 
best  librarian  is  the  judgment  that  comes  from 
the  heart  of  a  great  people. 

This  brings  us  to  the  real  difference  between 
the  Gothic  times  in  architecture  and  the  Renais- 
sance. The  revival  of  Classic  styles  did  not 
spring  out  of  the  needs  of  English  life,  so  its 
appeal  was  artificial,  imposing  fashions  that  few 
understood,  while  the  old  Gothic  styles  were 
interwoven  with  the  people's  highest  aims  and 
most  humble  daily  wants.  Even  now,  after 
three  hundred  years  of  Classic  experiments. 
Englishmen  respond  at  once  to  any  style  having 
Gothic  characteristics.  London  and  many  other 
towns  have  innumerable  houses  built  in  mixed 


236  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

styles,  and  side  by  side  with  them  are  streets  and 
squares  with  various  forms  of  Classic  treatment  ; 
and  with  some  account  of  these  I  shall  close  this 
chapter. 

In  this,  of  course,  we  must  keep  to  the  points 
of  view  given  in  the  test  questions  on  pages 
229-30.  After  Wren's  death  in  1723,  at  the  age 
of  ninety-one,  Classic  architecture  became  a  mode 
in  which  craftsmen  had  served  their  apprentice- 
ship ;  but  they  did  not  always  like  or  follow  some 
of  its  rules.  One  rule  said  that  all  windows  in  a 
row  must  be  equidistant  and  of  equal  size 
whether  the  rooms  to  be  lighted  were  large  or 
small.  Imagine  such  a  law  in  England — the 
nursery  of  compromise  !  Imagine,  too,  how 
the  common  sense  of  builders  refused  to  accept 
it.  Architects  might  jeer  at  their  "  ignorant 
prejudices,''  but  builders  had  no  wish  to  give 
up  all  the  old  Gothic  forms,  so  they  formed  a 
style  to  which  accident  has  given  the  name  of 
Queen  Anne,  but  which,  in  reality,  was  to  the 
later  times  of  the  Renaissance  what  Elizabethan 
architecture  became  to  it  at  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

Queen  Anne  architecture,  so  called,  is  thus 
a  composite  style  often  more  Gothic  in  spirit 
than  Classic.  It  shows  how  simple  workmen, 
though  opposed  by  learned  architects,  made  a 
Renaissance  style  of  their  own,  expressing  with 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES  237 

virile  charm  our  English  liking  for  compromise 
and  for  picturesque  shapes.  Its  merit  is  not 
only  admitted  to-day  :  it  is  also  adapted  to  our 
modern  needs  under  the  name  of  Free  Classic. 
Three  architects  of  genius — W.  E.  Nesfield, 
Philip  Webb,  and  Norman  Shaw,  R.A. — 
started  a  movement  in  favour  of  this  style  about 
thirty  years  ago,  and  their  example  had  a  very 
strong  influence  over  the  design  of  smaller 
houses.* 

"  Queen  Anne  " — let  us  keep  to  the  popular 
name — deserves  to  be  popular,  for  it  allows  an 
architect  to  express  himself  freely,  and  also  in  an 
attractive  manner  that  ordinary  people  like  ;  and 
when  you  come  to  look  for  its  past  and  present 
characteristics  you  find  that  they  are  exceed- 
ingly varied,  because  architects  have  combined 
with  "  Queen  Anne  "  certain  forms  that  belong 
to  other  Renaissance  styles.  For  example,  you 
must  have  noticed  in  London  a  good  many  tall, 
peaked  roofs  flattened  at  their  tops,  and  with 
railings  around  their  flat  summits  ?  These 
features    belong    to    the     French     Renaissance. 

*  It  was,  I  believe,  on  the  Bedford  Park  Estate  that  Mr. 
Norman  Shaw  started  his  Queen  Anne,  unless  Lowther  Lodge, 
Kensington,  is  counted  to  that  royal  lady*s  credit,  as  perhaps  it 
should  be.  About  the  same  time  Mr.  Shaw  was  at  work  on 
several  great  country  houses,  such  as  Cragside,  Northumberland, 
and  this  domestic  Gothic  was  the  shrine  at  which  many  young 
architects  worshipped. 


238  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Again,  at  Collingham  Gardens  and  Cadogan 
Square,  London,  there  are  houses  influenced  by 
the  Flemish  Renaissance,  and  these  will  give 
you  pleasure,  because  they  look  at  home  in 
London,  being  neither  too  formal  nor  too 
picturesque. 

Then,  as  to  the  Queen  Anne  style  long  ago,  it 
is  very  w^ell  described  by  Mr.  J.  J,  Stevenson, 
w^ho  used  it  himself  with  admirable  skill  and 
judgment. 

"  At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,"  he 
writes,*  "brick  had  become  the  common  building 
material  of  the  country,  and  Classic  forms  and 
mouldings  the  vernacular  of  the  workmen,  who, 
following,  apparently,  their  own  instincts,  formed 
the  style  out  of  these  elements,  without  drawings 
from  architects,  who  were  too  learned  to  tolerate 
its  barbarism.  .  .  .  The  shaping  of  the  gables 
into  various  curves,  which  is  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  style,  is  a  simple  and 
natural,  and  consequently  cheap,  mode  of  pro- 
ducing an  effect  in  brick.  It  is  one  of  the 
many  ways  in  which  the  builders  in  every 
country,  still  inspired  by  the  old  Gothic 
freedom,  got  rid  of  the  trammels  of  Classic  rule. 
.  .  .  The  Queen  Anne  style,  though  Classic  in 
all  its  details,  has  in  it  something  of  Gothic 
character.  It  avoids  the  deeply  set  windows 
*  "English  House  Architecture,"    i.  331. 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES  239 

and  dark  shadows  of  Classic,  and  gets  the  sense 
of  continuous  wall  surface  characteristic  of 
Gothic  by  keeping  the  window-frames  flush 
with  the  walls,  and  making  them  part  of  the 
wall  surface  by  covering  them  with  thick  sash- 
bars.  .  .  ."  Sometimes  "  the  windows  are  even 
more  Gothic,  with  their  mullions  and  transoms 
and  leaded  lights.'* 

At  Kew  Palace,  an  elaborate  example,  illus- 
trated by  Mr.  Stevenson,  there  are  bay-windows 
rising  from  the  ground  to  the  windows  of  the 
fourth  floor  ;  gables  variously  curved  look 
homely  and  yet  dignified  ;  and  between  the 
bays  are  Classic  columns  treated  in  a  free  and 
easy  manner,  the  orders  being  incorrect  and 
even  clumsy.  "  It  is  probably  not  the  work 
of  an  architect,  else  it  would  be  more  correct, 
but  one  of  those  productions  of  a  builder  which 
were  denounced  by  persons  of  taste  and  know- 
ledge as  aberrations  from  the  standard  of  Classic 
purity."  None  the  less,  "  it  is  a  charming 
house,  built  to  live  in,  but  yet  pleasant  to 
look  on." 

Sometimes,  as  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Mar- 
gate, you  will  find  it  in  houses  of  grey  flint 
with  all  the  architectural  parts — gables,  for 
instance,  and  quoins  and  window-dressings — in 
red  brick — a  delightful  contrast.  Note,  too,  that 
the  mouldings  and  carvings  are  not  in  moulded 


240  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

bricks,  like  many  Tudor  and  Elizabethan  chim- 
neys, but  in  cut  bricks  called  "  rubbers  '*  ;  these 
are  soft  and  granular,  and  easy  to  carve  into 
good  forms  with  true  and  firm  contours.  The 
Romans,  too,  used  brick  in  this  way  ;  and  cer- 
tainly it  is  more  attractive  than  the  moulded 
terra-cotta  to  be  seen  on  many  buildings  at 
Kensington,  and  among  them  the  Albert  Hall. 
Terra-cotta  may  twist  in  burning,  and  its  colour 
is  apt  to  be  unpleasantly  livid,  while  good 
English  bricks  have  had  a  gamut  of  colour 
ranging  from  the  plum-tinted  ones  at  Hampton 
Court  to  the  orange  red  of  our  own  time.  Thus 
the  use  of  pleasant-hued  cut  brick  is  a  notable 
feature  in  the  Queen  Anne  style. 

And  there  are  still  two  or  three  more  charac- 
teristics. The  window-panes  are  small  and  the 
window-frames  white,  like  the  panelled  walls  in 
the  cosy  parlours  ;  and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing 
to  find  keystones  in  the  window-heads  and 
aprons  under  the  windows.  These  aprons  are 
decorative,  particularly  when  they  are  edged 
with  a  moulding  of  stone. 

The  characteristics  of  this  style  all  denote  the 
same  spirit,  the  same  quiet  and  modest  liking 
for  a  picturesque  freedom  of  expression  not  in 
the  least  at  odds  with  good  taste.  It  became 
the  style  of  London,  and  provincial  folk  liked 
to  see  it  in  their  town  halls.     Its  proper  name 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES  241 

is  the  English  Renaissance  manner,  a  sister  of 
Elizabethan  and  Jacobean  architecture,  and  with 
them  it  forms  a  line  of  direct  descent  from  the 
Tudor  age  to  our  own. 

You  have  but  to  walk  about  London  if  you 
wish  to  see  what  a  firm  grip  these  composite 
styles  have  on  the  popular  mind.  There  are 
many  examples,  for  instance,  along  Marylebone 
Road.  Here  you  will  find  a  varied  treatment 
of  bays  and  of  gables,  all  in  modern  buildings, 
some  of  the  more  important  being  flats.  Near 
Upper  Baker  Street,  facing  the  main  road,  is 
a  tall  and  long  block  with  semicircular  bay- 
windows  and  well-built  gables,  all  treated  in  a 
pleasant  manner,  and  showing  that  these  old 
Gothic  features  are  as  young  as  the  alert  enter- 
prise of  London.  Near  at  hand  are  some  prim- 
faced  Classic  houses,  that  blink  sedately  through 
their  rows  of  uniform  windows.  They  recall 
to  mind,  somehow,  the  meek  good  books  which 
used  to  be  read  on  Sunday  as  a  mild  penance, 
whereas  the  gabled  houses  with  bay-windows 
look  gay  and  vivacious,  as  though  some  genius 
from  our  merry  old  country  ballads  had  got 
into  them. 

The  same  contrast  may  be  seen,  too,  in  other 
parts  of  London,  as  in  the  West  Central  district, 
where  any  one  may  learn  a  great  many  things 
about  English  Classic  architecture  in  streets  and 


^ 


242  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

squares.  Gower  Street,  as  we  have  already  noticed, 
is  an  example  of  Classic  routine  stereotyped  into 
monotony.  Compare  it  with  the  Bedford  Court 
Mansions,  behind  Bedford  Square,  and  you  will 
recognise  at  once  the  tendency  of  Classic  archi- 
tecture towards  dulness  and  of  Gothic  towards 
vivacity.  The  Bedford  Court  Mansions  are 
very  well  designed,  and  show  with  individuality 
the  charm  of  Gothic  forms  when  used  well 
for  the  needs  of  to-day.  One  feels  tempted  to 
speak  of  their  style  as  modern  Tudor.  Every 
part  of  the  elevations  may  be  studied  with 
pleasure,  because  the  workmanship  throughout 
is  thoughtful,  varied,  attractive,  and  structural. 
After  this  good  English  art  the  houses  in  Gower 
Street  are  certainly  depressing. 

The  truth  is  that  Classic  devotees  had  many 
hard  problems  to  solve  in  town  architecture. 
Long  rows  of  flat-faced  houses  with  windows  all 
the  same  size  on  each  floor  were  not  easy  to 
make  beautiful.  Vulgar  they  could  not  be,  for 
they  were  too  uniform  for  that,  but  beauty  must 
be  a  thing  of  contrasts  as  well  as  of  harmonies. 
This,  to  be  sure,  was  understood  by  Classic  men, 
who  made  use  of  balconies  to  give  interest  to 
their  elevations,  gave  much  thought  to  their 
doorways,  applied  pilasters  to  the  walls,  and  made 
strong,  projecting  cornices.  But  their  efforts 
were  often  thwarted   by  ground  landlords,  who 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES   243 

welcomed  the  Classic  style  because  its  laws  of 
symmetry  were  useful  in  business.  If  all  win- 
dows on  the  same  level  must  be  uniform  in  shape 
and  size,  why  not  apply  this  rule  to  the  door- 
ways also  and  the  elevations  generally  ?  Why 
not  repeat  the  same  house  scores  of  times  ? 
Money  could  be  saved,  and  this  consideration 
being  very  important  to  ground  landlords,  a 
good  many  supplied  their  architects  with  an 
elevation  and  insisted  that  streets  should  be 
degraded  to  a  lifeless  uniformity.  The  Portman 
estate  went  so  far  as  to  condemn  all  the  traceried 
fanlights  in  doorways,  forming  a  rule  that  com- 
pelled each  new  tenant  to  pull  out  the  wrought 
ironwork  and  the  leaden  ornament  of  husks, 
leaves,  &c.,  and  to  put  in  a  single  sheet  of  plate 
glass. 

In  these  circumstances,  what  were  Classic 
men  to  do  ?  They  all  delighted  to  make  their 
doorways  interesting  ;  and  I  remember  the  time 
when  in  little  streets  off  the  Strand,  now  de- 
stroyed by  the  Hotel  Cecil  and  other  buildings, 
every  doorway  was  a  work  of  art  and  quite 
different  from  its  neighbours.  A  good  many 
were  as  old  as  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Their  design  was  various  and  charming, 
for  they  had  never  too  much  ornament,  like 
builders'  work  at  the  present  time.  Sometimes 
these  doorways  were  of  wood,  and  their  deep-set 


^ 


244  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

fanlights  were  rich  with  tracery,  always  carved 
in  a  delicate  manner.  Many  had  Classic  pillars 
and  hoods ;  not  one  was  ugly.  Some  may  be 
found  even  now,  as  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
historic  Adelphi  Terrace,  where  J.  M.  W.  Turner 
worked  as  a  boy  in  the  house  of  Dr.  Monro, 
receiving  a  shilling  or  two  for  the  sketches  he 
made  in  friendly  competition  with  poor  Tom 
Girtin.  It  is  a  Classic  quarter  in  more  ways 
than  one,  as  the  Adelphi  Terrace  itself  was 
designed  by  the  brothers  Adam,  and  will  tell 
you  how  these  famous  architects  gave  variety  to 
their  rows  of  Classic  houses. 

In  this  case  they  give  a  different  treatment  to 
each  line  of  windows,  and  make  use  of  pilasters, 
enriching  them  with  a  large  palmette  ornament, 
repeated  from  top  to  bottom  of  each  pilaster. 
This  decoration  is  a  honeysuckle,  or  anthemion, 
a  thing  much  used  in  Greek  and  Roman  archi- 
tecture for  cornices,  in  the  necking  of  Ionic 
capitals,  and  elsewhere.  At  the  Adelphi  Terrace 
the  flowers  are  big,  and  the  general  effect  of  the 
elevation  is  rather  "  full "  ;  that  is,  we  see  so 
much  that  we  fail  to  see  it  as  a  whole.  There 
is  less  unity  and  less  distinction  than  you  will 
find  in  Bedford  Square  ;  here  the  brothers  Adam 
use  simpler  means  with  admirable  judgment. 
The  brickwork  has  a  pleasant  texture,  tall  win- 
dows give  alertness  to  a  flat  plane  of  wall  surface, 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES   245 

boldly  arched  doorways  impart  character  and 
strength,  while  the  painted  central  houses,  with 
pilasters  and  pediments,  are  balancing  plots  of 
variety.  Many  tenants  in  Bedford  Square  paint 
the  doorways  a  rich  cream  white,  and  this  gives 
emphasis  to  the  ornamental  slabs  which  at  in- 
tervals project  from  the  brickwork  around  the 
semicircular  arches. 

This,  no  doubt,  is  good  Classic  applied  to 
the  needs  and  conditions  of  town  life  ;  and  you 
will  find  similar  houses  in  many  streets  and 
squares.  Yet,  good  or  quiet  as  this  work  is,  a 
layman  may  venture  to  ask  himself  a  few 
questions.  Why  those  pediments  when  a  gable 
would  have  served  the  same  purpose  ?  Why 
those  long  lines  of  tall,  elegant  windows,  when 
bays  and  oriels  would  have  given  a  finer  diversity 
of  effect  ?  Was  it  really  worth  while  to  be 
Classic  in  wet  and  foggy  London  ? 

The  answer  to  this,  no  doubt,  is  that  even 
the  dead  Classic  of  Gower  Street  has  a  certain 
dignity  which  is  often  absent  in  work  having 
gables  and  bay-windows.  Gothic  traditions  are 
not  easy  to  handle.  They  require  excellent 
workmanship  and  much  self-control.  To  make 
this  clear  we  may  think  of  two  styles  in  writing, 
one  simple,  like  Bunyan's  or  Addison's,  the 
other  fluent  and  ornate,  like  De  Quincey's. 
Now  London  Classic  architecture,  however  dull 


I 


246  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

it  may  be  at  times,  has  never  the  self-assertion  * 
to  which  ornate  styles  are  subject,  while 
London  Gothic,  when  bad,  has  all  the  vices 
that  a  simple  manner  in  writing  avoids.  This, 
no  doubt,  is  the  strongest  point  that  writers  can 
bring  forward  in  the  favour  of  Classic  methods 
for  town  architecture.  Go  to  any  London 
suburb  and  note  the  effect  of  badly-designed 
bay-windows  in  long  streets  of  jerry-built  villas. 
You  will  then  think  of  Gower  Street  with 
pleasure.  In  this  formal  style  there  is  safety, 
while  in  builder's  Gothic  there  is  scope  for  an 
overwhelming  vulgarity. 

This  has  been  plain  for  many  years,  and  it 
helps  those  of  us  who  love  Gothic  traditions 
to  take  delight  in  good  Classic  work  like  that 
which  is  known  as  the  Adam  style.  Robert 
Adam,  it  is  true,  was  rather  effeminate  in  his 
use  of  attenuated  ornament,  which,  though 
chaste  and  elegant,  was  employed  for  too  many 
purposes  and  in  too  many  materials.  It  was 
often  too  small  to  be  in  scale  with  the  surface 
to  be  decorated.  For  all  that,  Adam  valued  the 
beauty  of  simple  lines,  and  his  decorative  scheme 
was  carried  through  a  house,  including  the 
furniture  and  the  tableware.  Much  of  the 
craftsmanship  was  done  by  Italians,  and  the 
sculpture  had  much  in  common  with  the  art 
of  Flaxman.     Adam's  style,  in  fact,  belongs  to 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES   247 

that  Georgian  school  of  thought  represented  by 
Wedgwood  and  his  ware,  and  having  much  in 
common  with  the  Classic  delicacy  of  the  time 
of  Queen  Anne. 

Still,  there  are  writers  of  distinction  who  have 
no  patience  at  all  with  the  brothers  Adam,  and 
both  sides  of  a  question  should  be  considered.  The 
late  G.  T.  Robinson,  F.S.A.,  wrote  as  follows  : 

"  When  Robert  Adam  returned  from  his  study 
of  old  Roman  architecture  in  its  most  emascu- 
lated phase  he  brought  with  him  a  new  fashion 
directly  derived  from  the  degenerate  decadence 
then  prevailing  in  modern  Italy.  Instead  of 
seeking  to  execute  his  designs  in  the  old 
modelled  stucco-work,  by  which  they  were 
originally  carried  out,  he  borrowed  the  craft  of 
the  cheap  picture-  and  mirror-frame  maker,  and 
brought  with  him  a  band  of  Italian  workmen 
endowed  with  the  knowledge  of  a  secret  com- 
position, itself  the  illegitimate  offspring  of  the 
noble  old  art  of  working  in  gesso.  This  was 
a  putty-like  mixture,  pressed  into  boxwood 
moulds,  and  from  this  pastry-cook  ware  of 
pliant  material  and  a  few  matrices  of  honey- 
suckle ornaments,  masks,  and  scrolls  he  arranged, 
often  with  grace  and  elegance,  light,  meandering 
festoons  and  sprays,  which  per  se  were  not  by 
any  means  without  merit,  but  which  by  constant 
iteration  became  almost  nauseous.'* 


248  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Some  persons  believe  that  the  Adam  style  was 
invented  by  the  brothers  Adam,  which  is  too 
great  a  compliment  to  these  able  men.  The 
style  was  a  living  one,  as  J.  J.  Stevenson  points 
out,  and  understood  by  all  workmen.  "  Some 
designers  may  have  been  better  than  others, 
acknowledged  as  masters  of  the  style  and  setting 
new  fashions,  like  the  brothers  Adam.  But  the 
work  which  is  not  theirs  is  similar  in  type,  and 
they  could  not  have  carried  out  the  things  they 
are  credited  with,  all  over  the  three  kingdoms, 
unless  the  style  had  been  everywhere  familiar  to 
workmen." 

This,  no  doubt,  is  true.  These  men  were 
leaders  of  a  school,  and  it  is  a  pity  not  to  re- 
member this  fact.  The  style  was  found  years 
ago  in  thousands  of  houses,  large  and  small,  but 
Victorian  ratepayers  did  not  like  it,  so  they 
tore  down  the  panelled  dados  around  the  rooms, 
which  were  always  painted  white,  like  the  rest  of 
the  woodwork.  Even  the  delicate  white  marble 
chimney-pieces,  inlaid  with  different  colours, 
were  disliked,  and  gave  place  to  Victorian  art 
in  enamelled  slate — all  as  heavy  as  lead.  You 
will  remember  the  huge  mantel-shelf  and  un- 
gainly consoles. 

Adam  silverwork  has  fared  better ;  it  is 
justly  valued  at  the  present  time,  and  has  all 
the    familiar    characteristics    of  this    Georgian 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES   249 

style.  To  put  these  distinguishing  traits  into 
words — to  tell  laymen  how  they  may  recognise 
this  art — is  difficult,  because  the  brothers  Adam, 
like  Flaxman,  liked  a  certain  kind  of  line  which 
cannot  be  described.  It  is  clear-cut  and  firm, 
yet  very  delicate  and  refined  ;  it  gives  distinc- 
tion both  in  curved  lines  and  in  straight.  You 
will  find  it  in  every  detail  of  a  typical  marble 
fireplace.  Still,  there  are  certain  things  in  this 
style  which  any  layman  may  remember  with 
ease.  The  brothers  Adam  were  fond  of  a  husk 
ornament  arranged  in  festoons  ;  and  these  strings 
of  husks  were  used  for  many  purposes — above 
door-lintels,  on  pediments,  on  silver  candlesticks, 
and  elsewhere.  Then  there  is  another  distin- 
guishing feature,  a  beautiful  Grecian  vase,  very 
often  with  a  goat's  head  on  each  side.  The  same 
goat's  head  appears  on  Adam  silverwork,  as  well 
as  in  medallions  on  fireplaces.  Leaves  and 
sprays,  delicately  moulded  and  formal,  are  other 
characteristics  ;  and  there  is  also  a  flower  bor- 
rowed from  Italian  art,  and  having  some 
resemblance  to  the  Tudor  rose.  But  the  main 
point  of  all  is  refinement.  "  How  very  deli- 
cate !  "  is  the  criticism  that  occurs  to  everybody 
at  a  first  glance.  > 

The  Adam  style  became  fashionable  again 
about  thirty  years  ago,  and  it  might  be  used  now 
with    discretion    in    flats,  where    the  rooms  are 


li 


250  THE  ENGLISH   HOUSE 

small  and  in  need  of  quiet,  refined  ornament. 
We  are  slow  to  recognise  that  the  reign  of 
George  HI.  gave  us  something  more  than  a 
great  school  of  painting.  In  addition  to  this  it 
produced  a  school  of  design  from  which  a  great 
many  useful  lessons  may  be  learnt,  not  in  fur- 
niture only,  but  in  street  architecture  and  in 
room  decoration.  We  are  not  likely  to  imitate 
Georgian  mistakes — porticoes,  for  instance,  and 
basements  ;  but  the  good  qualities  which  accom- 
panied these  errors  may  be  forgotten  in  our 
hurried  age.  There  is  a  fine  reserve  of  manner 
in  good  Georgian  design,  and  the  craftwork  is 
very  beautiful.  Wedgwood,  Flaxman,  Sheraton, 
Chippendale,  the  brothers  Adam,  and  many 
others,  are  English  Classics  ;  and  as  the  Classic 
school  of  architecture  is  settled  for  good  in 
England,  it  is  well  that  we  should  think  with 
respect  of  those  who  have  left  us  permanent 
examples  of  honest  work,  not  to  imitate  slavishly, 
but  to  admire  with  judgment. 

Georgian  furniture  *  is  invaluable  as  a  model 
to  ourselves.  No  matter  what  its  ornament 
may  be,  whether  simple  or  elaborate,  it  has 
the  quality  of  thoroughness,  without  which 
no  governing  race  can  hold  its  position  in 
the    world.       I    have   seen    cabinets    in    which 

*  I  mean  the  best  furniture  produced  during  the  reigns  of 
George  II.  and  George  III, 


RENAISSANCE  AND  OURSELVES   251 

the  brothers  Adam  tried  their  skill  in  Gothic 
forms,  and  with  so  much  reserve  and  knowledge 
that  I  remembered  at  once  the  saying  of  a 
French  architect  :  "  Modern  Gothic  is  helped 
by  a  thorough  Classic  training,  just  as  a  style  in 
writing  is  improved  by  the  discipline  of  Greek 
and  Latin  translation."  This  may  be  the  real 
lesson  which  the  Renaissance  has  to  teach  us 
after  three  hundred  years.  One  thing  is  certain 
at  any  rate  :  our  Gothic  school  is  more  reserved 
than  it  used  to  be,  and  the  Classic  school  is 
more  attractive  and  more  homeful.  Their  in- 
fluence at  present  is  unluckily  thwarted  by  many 
circumstances,  and  these  will  be  considered  in 
Chapters  XIV.  and  XV.  Good  houses  for  the 
few  are  built  to-day,  but  they  do  not  make  a 
national  form  of  architecture,  like  that  which 
existed  during  the  later  medieval  times. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SOME  HINTS  TOWARDS  THE  STUDY  OF 
THE  RENAISSANCE 

THE  Renaissance  was  a  very  complex 
movement,  and  its  v^ork  must  be 
associated  v^ith  other  historical  events, 
some  of  which  preceded  it  (like  the  invention 
of  gunpowder,  which  made  the  castle  system  of 
defence  almost  useless).  The  course  of  politics 
in  England  during  the  fifteenth  century  pre- 
pared the  way  for  great  changes  by  weakening 
those  ancient  and  noble  families  whose  conser- 
vatism appeared  to  be  as  settled  as  their  landed 
estates.  The  old  nobility  of  England  suffered 
immensely  in  the  twelve  pitched  battles  of  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses  ;  a  great  many  families  were 
annihilated,  and  the  new  men  who  succeeded 
wished  to  be  enterprising,  and  in  touch  with 
current  theories  and  with  new  movements  of 
thought. 

Side  by  side  with  this  was  the  progress  of 
printing,  which  in  Henry  VII. 's  time  began 
to  open  new  horizons  in  knowledge  ;  just 
as    recent    discoveries    of    new    trading-centres 

252 


THE  RENAISSANCE  253 

quickened  the  public  mind  with  an  idea  of 
space  hitherto  unknown  to  it.  In  i486,  the 
year  of  Lambert  Simners  rebellion,  Bartholomew 
Diaz,  a  native  of  Portugal,  sailing  to  the  South, 
reached  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  ;  in  1492 
Columbus  crossed  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the 
West  Indian  Islands;  in  1497  Vasco  da  Gama 
made  his  way  to  India  by  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  ;  three  years  later  Cbrte  Real  dropped 
anchor  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  while 
Pedro  Cabral  discovered  Brazil ;  and  about  the 
same  time  (1496— 1502)  Sebastian  Cabot  sailed 
from  Bristol  in  an  English  ship  and  reached 
Newfoundland. 

Then  the  Renaissance  came  in  other  and 
more  subtle  ways,  appealing  to  the  imagination 
through  works  of  art  and  through  the  genius 
of  Luther  and  Erasmus.  It  was  an  Italian, 
Torrigiano,  who  made  the  tomb  of  Henry  VII. 
in  Westminster  Abbey  ;  the  work  was  begun 
in  1509,  and  the  artist  held  himself  aloof  from 
the  influence  of  Gothic  styles.  His  monument 
is,  in  fact,  our  earliest  example  of  revived  Classic 
art.  And  Torrigiano  is  not  the  only  foreigner 
who  connects  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  with 
the  new  art  movement.  I  have  spoken  of 
John  of  Padua  (p.  188),  and  other  Renaissance 
artists  were  befriended  by  the  king,  like 
Holbein,  Giovanni  da  Majano,  and  Rouezzano. 


rrear 


254  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

During  Elizabeth's  reign  there  was  a  grea 
influx  of  foreign  workmen  into  England,  par- 
ticularly after  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew 
in  1572,  and  this  was  preceded  by  the  first 
English  book  on  the  Classic  styles  of  archi- 
tecture, written  by  John  Shute,  and  printed  in 
1563.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  word  Renais- 
sance applies  to  changes  of  mental  outlook  that 
affected  English  life  in  many  different  ways, 
working  revolutions  in  religion,  knowledge, 
art,  and  commercial  enterprise.  Colleges  were 
built,  and  men  talked  of  a  New  Learning  and 
fought  for  a  New  Religion,  prepared  themselves 
for  adventures  in  a  New  World,  and  wished  to 
make  experiments  in  a  New  Drama  and  a  New 
Art. 

But  there  was,  of  course,  a  great  difference 
between  the  Renaissance  in  Italian  art  and  its 
English  imitation,  for  Italian  artists  rebelled 
against  asceticism,  the  very  power  which  ruled  in 
England  with  Cromwell's  Puritan  soldiers.  Their 
aim  was  to  slacken  those  monastic  leading-strings 
which  had  bound  men  of  genius  to  ecclesiastical 
discipline  and  tradition.  Art,  it  was  argued, 
should  represent  the  joy  of  life  and  the  beauty 
of  created  things  ;  and  if  it  could  do  this  in  a 
spirit  of  reasonable  freedom  why  should  it  lose 
the  patronage  of  the  great  and  good  ?  To  be 
"  other-worldly  "   in   matters  of  this  world — to 


THE  RENAISSANCE  255 

preach  the  Gospels  in  some  pictures  and  be 
frankly  pagan  in  others — was  not  easy  ;  but  the 
Italian  Church  was  moved  by  the  Renaissance 
spirit  just  like  her  artists,  and  men  of  genius 
won  their  liberty.  All  their  many  forms  of 
beautiful  work  were  united  together  and  served 
one  purpose  in  magnificent  buildings,  so  that 
churches  and  palaces  glowed  with  colour,  and 
were  rich  with  sculpture  and  splendid  crafts- 
manship. 

In    England    it    was    very    different.      The 
Puritans    grew  stronger    and    more    intolerant  ; 
they  began  to   assert   themselves  during  Shake-  I    ^ 
speare's   life,  showing   a  determined   hatred  for  /     * 
art  and  luxury  ;  and  thus  the  Classical  revival  ^ 
was    strongly    opposed    from    its    first    coming, 
particularly   in    those   very  aims    that    made    it 
glorious  in  Italy. 

Both  Inigo  Jones  and  Sir  Christopher  Wren 
had  great  ideas,  but  neither  did  full  justice  to 
himself,  the  political  temper  of  the  age  being 
inartistic  and  turbulent.  Whether  the  modern 
decorations  improve  St.  Paulas  Cathedral  is  a 
question  open  to  doubt,  but  they  prove  that 
Wren  was  unable  to  complete  his  work.  And 
Inigo  Jones  was  not  more  fortunate.  White- 
hall Palace  has  never  been  finished,  as  every 
one  knows,  but  its  design  may  be  studied  in 
Fergusson*s   "  History  of  Architecture,''  and  its 


256  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

vast  scale  looks  too  grand  even  for  our  own 
wealthy  times.  The  palace  would  have  been 
874  ft.  long  towards  the  river,  and  not  less  than 
1 1 5  2  ft.  in  depth,  with  a  great  central  court 
measuring  750  ft.  long  by  378  ft.  wide.  The 
architecture  is  unaffected,  and  its  Classicism 
has  an  air  of  its  own,  for  the  whole  fa9ade  is 
broken  up  with  projections,  and  the  horizontal 
lines  do  not  prevail  over  those  which  are  ver- 
tical, so  there  is  a  feeling  of  upward  growth 
such  as  we  find  in  mixed  styles  of  Gothic  and 
Classic.  Even  the  sky-line  would  have  been 
interrupted  by  pediments,  towers,  and  statues. 
Jones  made  this  great  design  soon  after  his 
second  visit  to  Italy,  yet  before  he  had  settled 
down  into  full  sympathy  with  the  Classic  orders. 

In  the  present  Banqueting  House,  so  well 
known  in  connection  with  the  death  of  Charles  I., 
we  may  see  the  nature  of  the  work  that  Jones 
had  in  mind;  only  we  must  remember  that 
other  parts  of  the  building  would  have  had 
three  stories  instead  of  two,  so  as  to  give  variety 
to  the  general  outline. 

To  be  brief,  Whitehall  is  an  example  of  the 
thwarted  aims  which  Classical  art  met  with 
during  the  Great  Civil  War  ;  and  a  good  many 
other  events  broke  in  upon  the  new  architecture 
and  hindered  its  slow  adaptation  to  the  needs 
of   English    life    and    to    the    conditions    of  a 


I    I  l^  I  ]  ' 


C 
(U 

U 


Pi;    a 


THE  RENAISSANCE  257 

Northern  climate.  For  example,  if  any  archi- 
tect wished  to  study  at  first  hand  the  Classic 
styles  which  he  copied,  he  travelled  at  great 
expense  to  Italy ;  and  even  then,  after  his 
return  to  England,  he  had  to  rely  upon  books 
and  memories.  Under  this  disadvantage  he 
was  never  aided  by  living  traditions,  and 
hence  the  eagerness  with  which  any  help  from 
abroad  was  welcomed. 

When  Charles  II.  came  to  the  throne,  in 
1660,  French  influence  grew  strong,  and  it 
lasted  till  the  times  of  George  II.,  though  its 
power  was  disputed  by  a  Dutch  rival  during 
William  and  Mary's  reign.  The  early  work 
of  Chippendale  is  an  example  of  this  French 
taste,  for  its  reiteration  of  reversed  curves  was 
prompted  by  the  style  of  Louis  Quatorze. 
The  chronology  of  Chippendale's  designs  may 
be  followed  by  noting  how  he  went  away  bit 
by  bit  from  this  characteristic,  till  he  came 
in  touch  with  that  Chinese  mania  which  Sir 
William  Chambers  introduced  into  England 
about  1760.  Chinese  chairs  were  fashionable 
then,  but  Chippendale  believed  that  their  style 
might  be  improved,  so  he  adopted  more  rigid 
forms,  giving  up  his  early  fondness  for  curved 
lines,  and  making  chairs  with  plain  square  legs 
and  with  interlaced  backs,  where  bars  of  wood 
formed  a  trelliswork. 


2,58  THE  ENGLISH   HOUSE 

About  ten  years  later,  in  1770,  Walpole 
started  his  Gothic  revival ;  and  this  movement, 
though  interrupted  by  a  fashionable  wish  to 
be  Grecian  in  architecture,  was  handed  on  by 
James  Wyatt  to  John  Shaw  (1776- 1832),  to 
A.  W.  N.  Pugin  (1812-52),  and  to  many 
other  men  who  have  had  a  ruling  influence, 
like  Ruskin  and  William  Morris  ;  and  thus  it 
is  clear  that  the  Renaissance  has  for  its  main 
characteristics  the  following  points  :  ^ 

1 .  A  great  diversity  of  aim.  fli 

2.  A  Classicism  interrupted  by  political  events, 
by  artistic  fashions,  and  by  a  wish  to  recover  the 
old-time  authority  of  native  English  styles.  The 
political  events  are  important  because  their 
effects  are  very  visible,  as  in  the  destruction  of 
castles  by  Cromwell.  This  was  a  great  loss  to 
the  history  of  architecture,  because  those  castles 
showed  in  their  arrangement  how  they  had  been 
fitted  to  the  habits  and  customs  of  different 
generations.  As  to  the  artistic  fashions,  they 
were  short-lived,  for  the  Anglo-Chinese  move- 
ment of  1760  had  no  more  effect  on  English 
household  art  than  the  Anglo-Japanese  ideas  that 
come  now  and  then  into  vogue.  All  that  is 
permanent  in  the  Renaissance  may  be  divided 
into  three  periods  : 

I.   The  Early  Period^  embracing  the  transition 
from  Tudor  into  Elizabethan  and  Jacobean. 


I 


THE  RENAISSANCE  259 

2.  T/ie  Middle  Period^  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  when  Classic  work  pre- 
dominates, though  builders  in  country  districts 
and  in  London  form  their  English  Renaissance 
style,  popularly  known  to-day  as  "  Queen  Anne 
architecture." 

3.  The  Modern  Period^  or  nineteenth  century, 
during  which,  after  many  wild  flights  of  enthu- 
siasm, the  rival  schools  of  Goths  and  Classics 
settle  down  at  last  into  order  and  quiet,  forming 
or  using  vernacular  styles  that  accord  with  the 
needs  and  conditions  of  daily  life. 

Many  books  have  been  written  on  these 
subjects,  and  many  beautiful  volumes  of  illus- 
trations have  been  published  ;  the  following 
selection  will  be  of  value  to  all  amateurs  and 
students  : 

1.  "Mansions  of  England  in  the  Olden 
Time."  By  Joseph  Nash.  4  folio  vols.  1839- 
1849. 

2.  The  large  publication  on  Tudor  architec- 
ture now  being  issued  by  B.  T.  Batsford. 

3.  "The  Evolution  of  the  English  House." 
By  Sidney  O.  Addy.      1899  and  1905. 

4.  "  Analysis  of  Ancient  Domestic  Architec- 
ture."    By  F.  T.  DoUman.     2  vols.      1863. 

5.  "  Some  Account  of  Domestic  Architecture 
in  England  during  the  Middle  Ages."  By 
T.  H.  Turner  and  J.  H.  Parker.      1859-77. 


26o  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

6.  "  A  Collection  of  the  Ancient  Timber 
Edifices  of  England/'  By  J.  Clayton.  Folio. 
1846. 

7.  "  Old  Cottages,  Farm-houses,  and  other 
Half-timber  Buildings  in  Shropshire,  Hereford- 
shire, and  Cheshire."  By  E.  A.  Ould  and 
James  Parkinson.      1904. 

8.  "  Old  Cottages,  Farm-houses,  and  other 
Stone  Buildings  in  the  Cotswold  District.''  By 
W.  G.  Davie  and  E.  Guy  Dawben      1905. 

9.  "  Old  Cottages  and  Farm-houses  in  Kent 
and  Sussex."  By  W.  G.  Davie  and  E.  Guy 
Dawber.      1900. 

10.  "Studies  from  Old  English  Mansions." 
By  C.  J.  Richardson.  4  folio  vols.  1841- 
1848. 

11.  Richardson  on  "The  Architectural 
Remains  of  the  Reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 
James  I."     Folio.      1840. 

12.  "The  Ancient  Half-timbered  Houses  of 
England."     By  M.  Habershon.     Folio.      1836. 

13.  "Annals  of  an  Old  Manor-house:  Sutton 
Place,  Guildford."     By  F.  Harrison.      1893. 

14.  "Details  of  Elizabethan  Architecture." 
By  H.  Shav^.      1839. 

15.  "Old  Halls  in  Lancashire  and  Cheshire." 
By  H.  Taylor.     1884. 

16.  Original  drawings  by  John  Thorpe  in 
the  Soane  Museum. 


THE  RENAISSANCE  261 

17.  Original  drawings  by  Twopeny  in  the 
Print  Room,  the  British  Museum — an  invaluable 
collection,  necessary  to  all  students  of  English 
domestic  architecture  and  decorative  design. 
The  sketches  are  very  numerous  and  varied,  and 
an  excellent  catalogue  has  been  prepared  by 
Mr.  Laurence  Binyon. 

18.  "  House  Architecture."  By  J.  J.  Steven- 
son.    2  vols.      1880. 

19.  "Lectures  on  Architecture."  By  E.  M. 
Barry,  R.A.      1881. 

20.  "The  English  Gentleman's  House." 
By  Robert  Kerr.      1865. 

21.  "The  Decorative  Work  of  R.  and  J. 
Adam."  Folio.  1901.  Published  by  B.  T. 
Batsford. 

22.  "A  History  of  Renaissance  Architecture 
in  England."  By  R.  Blomfield.  1897.  An 
abridged  edition  appeared  in  1900. 

23.  "The  Life,  Work,  and  Influence  of  Sir 
Christopher  Wren."     By  A.  Stratton.      1897. 

24.  "  Architecture  of  the  Renaissance  in 
England."  By  J.  A.  G3tch.  2  vols.  1891- 
1894. 

25.  "  Early  Renaissance  Architecture  in 
England/*     By  J.  A.  Gotch.      1901. 

26.  "  Later  Renaissance  Architecture  in 
England."  By  J.  Belcher  and  M.  E.  Macart- 
ney.    2  vols.,  folio.      1897-1901. 


262  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

27.  "  Some  Architectural  Works  of  Inigo 
Jones/'  By  H.  Inigo  Triggs  and  H.  Tanner, 
Jun.     Folio.      1 90 1. 

28.  "A  History  of  x^rchitecture."  By 
Professor  Banister  Fletcher  and  Banister  F. 
Fletcher.     Published  by  B.  T.  Batsford. 

29.  "The  British  Home  of  To-day."  Edited 
by  W.  Shaw  Sparrow.      1904. 

30.  "  The  Modern  Home  for  Moderate  In- 
comes." 1906.  "Flats,  Urban  Houses,  and 
Cottage  Homes."  1907.  Companion  volumes 
to  "  The  British  Home  of  To-day." 

This  list  might  be  lengthened,  but  it  gives,  I 
believe,  the  books  that  appeal  to  the  general 
public  as  well  as  to  professional  students,  for 
they  are  enriched  with  admirable  illustrations 
that  enable  a  reader  to  travel  about  England 
without  paying  innumerable  hotel  bills  and 
railway  fares.  To  study  architecture  at  first 
hand,  by  visiting  houses  and  churches,  is  one  of 
the  most  expensive  pastimes  that  any  one  can 
cultivate,  even  although  he  may  journey  in  his 
own  motor-car  ;  while  to  study  it  in  photographs 
and  drawings — in  folios,  books,  and  prints — does 
not  cost  more  than  many  popular  hobbies,  such 
as  amateur  photography,  stamp-collecting,  and 
other  good  things  encouraged  by  newspapers. 

But  there  are  few  persons  who  understand 
how    much    the    public    owes    to    architectural 


THE  RENAISSANCE  263 

draughtsmen  like  Blore,  Twopeny,  and  Nash, 
and  to  architectural  photographers  like  Mr. 
Bedford  Lemere  and  Mr.  W.  G.  Davie. 
These  men — and  many  others — have  preserved 
for  us  examples  of  domestic  work  that  the  State 
would  not  protect  from  careless  owners  or  from 
jerry-building  enterprises.  At  the  time  when 
Queen  Victoria  came  to  the  throne  English 
country  districts  had  many  good  relics  of  very 
ancient  domestic  architecture  ;  indeed,  all  the 
many  phases  through  which  the  English  house 
had  passed  since  the  Norman  Conquest  could  be 
studied  at  first  hand  in  various  examples ;  and  if 
these  works  of  history  had  been  preserved  by 
the  State,  or  by  the  commercial  common  sense 
of  our  town  councils,  they  would  be  to-day 
a  source  of  revenue  to  many  neighbourhoods, 
attracting  students  and  visitors  from  far  and 
near.  But  a  craze  for  "  restoration "  set  in, 
followed  by  a  wish  to  "  clear  away  old  rubbish,*' 
as  venerable  houses  were  called  by  speculative 
builders ;  and  in  this  way  many  towns  and 
villages  were  made  unhistoric  and  unattractive. 
Hence  it  is  fortunate  for  us  that  houses  cannot 
be  entirely  destroyed — if  plans  and  pictures  of 
them  exist.  We  may  still  learn  what  England 
was  from  1750  to  1850  by  studying  our  topo- 
graphical draughtsmen,  from  Sandby  and  Hearne 
to  Blore  and  Twopeny.     From  Twopeny  much 


264  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

more  than  this  may  be  learnt  ;  he  is  the  Boswell 
of  our  English  house,  for  his  beautiful  pencil 
drawings  are  a  history  of  its  evolution  from  the 
twelfth  century  to  those  mansions  of  orna- 
mented plaster  which  were  built  here  and  there 
during  Charles  II. *s  time.  Now  that  Two- 
peny*s  work  is  safe  from  injury,  like  many 
architectural  drawings  by  earlier  artists,  there  is 
no  fear  that  the  restoration  and  destruction  ot 
historic  houses  and  cottages  will  keep  us  from 
knowing  what  they  were  like  outside  and  how 
their  rooms  were  planned. 

Again,  as  house  architecture  in  every  period 
represents  a  phase  of  social  manners  and  customs, 
there  ought  to  be  a  public  gallery  in  which 
every  one  might  study  this  fine  history  of  English 
family  life.  Plans,  drawings,  and  photographs 
could  be  arranged  in  their  right  historical 
sequence,  and  a  good  catalogue  would  serve  as 
an  efficient  lecturer.  This  may  be  too  much 
to  expect  at  the  present  time,  but  it  is  clearly 
a  thing  to  be  desired,  and  a  beginning  might 
be  made  at  little  cost  if  the  Government  issued 
portfolios  of  reproduced  photographs  for  use  in 
public  libraries  and  in  all  schools. 

This,  indeed,  is  the  only  way  in  which  the 
story  of  the  English  house  can  be  made  as  truly 
popular  as  it  ought  to  be,  because  no  book 
can    afford    the    large    number    of  illustrations 


b 


THE  RENAISSANCE  265 

that  this  subject  needs  for  every  one  of  its 
styles  and  periods  ;  and,  of  course,  there  are 
many  things  in  architecture  as  in  other  arts 
which  cannot  be  described  by  any  writer. 
Colour,  form,  pattern,  subtle  differences  of 
treatment,  and  varieties  of  the  same  style  are 
all  indescribable,  and  they  happen  to  be  the 
very  things  that  amateur  students  wish  to  know 
thoroughly. 

In  a  book  like  the  present  one,  addressed  to 
non-technical  readers,  the  only  thing  a  writer 
can  do  is  to  keep  to  those  matters  which  can 
be  made  real  by  words  with  the  help  of  a  few 
pictures.  By  this  means  he  may  stir  up  here 
and  there  a  genuine  liking  for  his  subject,  and 
cause  some  readers  to  buy  other  books  and  a 
collection  of  photographs,  such  as  may  be 
obtained  from  Mr.  Bedford  Lemere,  Strand, 
London.  The  following  list  of  some  famous 
houses  will  be  a  guide  in  the  choice  of  subjects, 
from  the  fourteenth  century  to  the  Classical 
work  of  the  nineteenth  : 

Fourteenth  Century 

1.  Ightham  Mote,  Kent,  a  moated  manor- 
house  containing  work  of  many  periods. 

2.  Stokesay  Castle,  Salop,  circa  1291. 

3.  Markenfield  Hall,  Yorkshire,  13 10. 

4.  The  Hall  at  Penshurst,  Kent. 


266  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Fifteenth  Century 

1.  Great  Chalfield,  Wilts. 

2.  Compton  Wynyates,  Warwickshire,  with 
many  later  additions  of  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 

3.  Haddon  Hall,  Derby,  with  later  additions. 

4.  Crosby  Hall,  London,  1466--75. 

5.  Oxburgh  Hall,  Norfolk, /^w/>«j  Edward  IV. 

6.  Warkworth  Castle,  Northumberland. 

Sixteenth  Century 

1.  A  part  of  Hampton  Court. 

2.  Moreton  Hall,  Cheshire,  a.d.  1550-59. 

3.  Charlecote,  Warwickshire,  a.d.  1558. 

4.  Kirby,  Northants,  attributed  to  John 
Thorpe,  A.D.  1570-75. 

5.  Knole,  Kent,  A.D.  1570. 

6.  Penshurst,  Kent,  1570-85. 

7.  Burleigh,    Northants,    by   John    Thorpe, 

1575-87. 

8.  Longleat,  Wiltshire,  attributed  to  John  of 
Padua,  and  built  in  1567-79. 

9.  Westwood,  Worcestershire,  dating  from 
1590. 

10.  Wollaton,  Notts,  by  R.  Smithson,  a.d. 
1580. 

11.  Longford  Castle,  Wilts,  by  John  Thorpe, 
A.D.  1580,  but  much  altered  in  the  eighteenth 
century. 


THE  RENAISSANCE  267 

12.  Hever,  Kent. 

13.  Sutton  Court,  Surrey. 

14.  The  ruins  of  Cowdray  House,  Sussex. 

15.  The  Gate  of  Honour,  Caius  College, 
Cambridge,  attributed  to  Theodore  Haveus,  of 
Cleves,  A.D.  1565-74. 

16.  Nevill  Court,  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge, by  Ralph  Simonds,  a.d.  1593— 1615. 

"Jacobean  and  Stuart  Period 

1.  Holland  House,  Kensington,  by  John 
Thorpe,  a.d.  1607. 

2.  Bramshill,  Hants,  dating  from  161 2. 

3.  Hatfield  House,  Herts,  a.d.  161  i. 

4.  Audley  End,  Essex,  by  Bernard  Jansen, 
finished  in  1616. 

5.  Blickling  Hall,  Norfolk,  a.d.  1620. 

6.  Montacute,  Somerset. 

7.  Loseley  Park,  near  Guildford. 

8.  Aston  Hall,  Warwickshire. 

9.  Chilham  Castle,  Kent,  by  Inigo  Jones, 
transitional  in  style,  with  an  E-shaped  fafade 
of  brick  dressed  with  stone.  The  side  wings 
radiate  and  form  a  horseshoe  court  behind. 

10.  The  Quadrangle  of  St.  John's  College, 
Oxford,  by  Inigo  Jones,  also  transitional.  It  is 
a  delightful  building,  and  its  Gothic  traits  are 
all  the  more  noteworthy  because  they  date  from 
the  years  1 63 1—35,  ten  years  later  than  Whitehall. 


268  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Classical  Architecture 
Inigo  Jones  (i 572-1 652). — Banqueting  House, 
Whitehall,  1619-21  ;  the  King's  House, 
Greenwich,  and  Chevening  House  ;  Stoke  Park, 
1630-34;  Wilton  House,  Wiltshire,  and  Ash- 
burnham  House,  Dean's  Yard,  London. 

Webb^  a  pupil  of  Inigo  Jones, — The  river 
fafade  of  Greenwich  Hospital. 

Sir  Christophor  Wren  (1632-1723). — Inner 
Court,  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  1665  ;  the 
Library  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  1679  ; 
King  William's  Palace  at  Hampton  Court, 
1690  ;  Greenwich  Hospital,  the  two  blocks 
away  from  the  river,  1698  ;  Kensington  Palace  ; 
Chelsea  Hospital  ;  Marlborough  House,  Pall 
Mall,  built  in  1709. 

Sir  John  Vanbrugh  (1666- 1726). — Blenheim 
Palace,  171 5  ;  Castle  Howard,  Yorkshire,  17 14 
(see  Plate  59)  ;  King's  Weston,  Gloucestershire, 
and  Seaton  Delaval,  Northumberland. 

Kent  (1684-1748).— Holkham  Hall,  Norfolk, 
1730  ;  Devonshire  House,  Piccadilly,  and  the 
Horse  Guards,  London,  in  which  he  collabo- 
rated with  the  Earl  of  Burlington. 

Robert  and  James  Adam  (about  1728-92). — 
Kedlestone  Hall,  Derbyshire  (built  in  1761)  ; 
the  Adelphi  Terrace  (see  p.  244)  ;  some  houses 
in  Fitzroy  Square,  London  ;  Stratford  Place, 
Oxford    Street ;    Charlotte    Square,   Edinburgh, 


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^CflLEf^'R  PLANS 

Classic  Country  Mansions  of  the  Eighteenth  Century. 

Reproduced    by  kind   permission    of   Professor   Banister    Fletcher's    "A 

History  of  Architecture  "  (B.  T.  Batsford,  Publisher). 

See  pages  268  and  270. 


THE  RENAISSANCE  269 

and  the  College  also  ;  Bedford  Square,  London, 
and  Caen  Wood,  Hampstead. 

Nash  (1752-  1835).  —  Buckingham  Palace, 
afterwards  altered  by  Blore  ;  Regent  Street,  Lon- 
don, and  the  blocks  of  houses  around  Regent's 
Park. 

Decimus  Burton  (1800-81). — Athenaeum  Club, 
Pall  Mall,  and  the  United  Service  Club. 

Sir  Charles  Barry  (179 5- 18 60). — The  Travel- 
lers' Club,  Pall  Mall,  and  the  Reform  Club; 
Bridgewater  House,  where  Gothic  influence 
marks  a  transition  of  style. 

Sir  James  Pennethorne  (i  801-71).  —  The 
western  wing  of  Somerset  House,  and  London 
University,  Burlington  Gardens.  Pennethorne, 
influenced  by  Sir  Charles  Barry,  broke  away 
from  the  use  of  porticoes,  and  his  style  is  often 
nearer  to  the  English  Renaissance  than  to 
Classic  purity. 

But  it  is  invidious  to  draw  up  a  list  of 
Classical  buildings,  because  they  abound  in  all 
English  towns,  and  their  variations  of  style 
appeal  to  everybody.  To  understand  their  his- 
tory is  a  lifelong  study,  which  few  architects 
have  time  enough  to  master  ;  but  this  need  not 
deter  laymen  from  taking  pleasure  in  the  treat- 
ment of  Classic  doorways,  in  the  shape  and 
disposition  of  deep-set  windows,  in  the  use  of 
cornices,  and  in   the  difference  between  Greek 


270  THE  ENGLISH   HOUSE 

and  Roman  ideals  of  style.  Professor  Banister 
Fletcher  has  kindly  allowed  me  to  take  from  his 
book — "  A  History  of  Architecture  " — two  very 
useful  drawings,  one  giving  the  plans  and  ele- 
vations of  Castle  Howard  and  Kedlestone  Hall, 
and  the  other  a  comparison  between  Greek  and 
Roman  mouldings.  These  plates  are  not  difficult 
to  learn  by  heart,  and  when  they  are  understood 
they  become  a  guide  to  many  forms  of  Anglo- 
Classic  work.  Compare  Kedlestone  Hall  with 
the  Adelphi  Terrace  and  with  Bedford  Square, 
both  of  which  are  illustrated  here,  and  you  will 
see  how  the  brothers  Adam  changed  their  style 
several  times  in  the  reign  of  George  III.  Hence 
we  must  not  speak  of  "  the  Georgian  manner  " 
as  though  one  type  of  house  was  built  during  the 
long  span  of  years  that  separated  the  accession 
of  George  I.  (17 14)  from  the  death  of  George 
IV.  (1830).  Nothing  could  be  less  correct. 
Houses  were  built  in  many  styles  and  in  many 
variants  of  one  style.  Castle  Howard  is  very 
different  from  Kedlestone,  yet  both  are  Italian 
in  spirit.  They  have,  no  doubt,  some  points  of 
resemblance,  for  the  ground  floor  in  each  is  a 
basement,  and  a  great  external  staircase  leads  to 
the  porticoed  entrance  on  the  first  floor,  where 
the  best  rooms  are  situated.  Note,  too,  that  the 
saloon  at  Kedlestone  is  circular,  like  the  Great 
Hall    at    Castle    Howard,      Architects   of  the 


THE  RENAISSANCE  271 

eighteenth  century  were  fond  of  many-shaped 
apartments.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  them 
to  round  off  the  ends  of  oblong  rooms,  and  to  give 
further  variety  with  the  use  of  octagonal  forms. 
These  characteristics  are  interesting,  but  they 
denote  only  one  kind  of  Georgian  house,  very 
different  from  the  practical,  street-bred  type  to 
be  found  in  Hanover  Square,  Stratford  Place, 
and  other  London  localities. 

Still,  the  town  and  country  houses  had  one 
thing  in  common  under  the  Classic  movement  : 
their  windows  were  long  and  narrow,  so  as  to 
counteract  the  many  horizontal  lines.  Other 
points  concerning  windows  are  mentioned  in  this 
book  ;  and  we  have  also  considered  the  treat- 
ment of  doorways,  another  matter  to  which 
Classic  architects  gave  great  attention.  At  a 
time  when  English  towns  were  badly  lighted 
after  dark,  and  when  gentlemen  drank  too  much, 
after  the  manner  of  Squire  Western,  it  was 
very  important  that  houses  in  a  street  should  be 
easily  recognised  at  all  hours  of  the  night ;  and 
this  consideration  influenced  architects  in  their 
designs  for  doorways. 

One  other  characteristic  may  be  mentioned 
at  this  point,  namely,  the  use  of  rustic  work. 
It  is  described  by  Parker  as  dressed  masonry, 
the  joints  of  which  are  worked  with  grooves  or 
channels,    to    make    them    conspicuous  ;    some- 


2/2  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

times  the  whole  of  the  joints  are  worked  in  this 
way,  and  sometimes  only  the  horizontal  ones  ; 
the  grooves  are  either  moulded  or  plain,  and  are 
formed  in  several  different  ways.  In  early 
examples  of  this  rustic  work  the  stones  were 
purposely  made  rough,  while  at  a  later  time 
they  were  usually  made  even.  After  stucco  was 
introduced  by  Nash,  during  the  Regency,  rustic 
work  was  often  applied  to  that  material,  grooves 
being  made  in  the  stucco  to  imitate  joints 
between  large  stones. 

Again,  many  doorways  in  English  streets  have 
rusticated  columns  ;  that  is,  the  shafts  of  the 
columns  are  decorated  with  slabs  of  stone ; 
these  are  square  in  shape,  and  the  shafts 
appear  to  run  through  them*  Another  type  of 
doorway  has  a  rusticated  architrave,  adapted 
from  Palladio.  There  are  usually  either  three 
or  five  keystones  in  the  head,  and  four  or  five 
stretching-rustics  at  the  sides,  and  a  good  trian- 
gular pediment  to  crown  the  whole  design. 
The  brothers  Adam,  in  Bedford  Square,  used 
a  different  treatment,  which  may  be  studied  in 
the  illustration  facing  p.  248. 

Finally,  though  it  is  necessary  to  think  of  these 
details,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  Renaissance 
must  be  looked  at  from  a  more  general  point  of 
view  as  a  great  event  in  the  life  of  England. 
What  do  we  learn  from  it  ?     How  should   its 


l'    J   J    J    > 


J  ^    '  :> 


-^f^^^^J;^ 


Dioiooiiaoto^  }d  MB  ^  JoMoMaiOioMoiio'tc ) 


y"^T^j(B) 


DOLPHINS   4  /ICFINTHU,')- 


IFF 


mis,  fK^I^^^^      INTEECOLUKi^l^TlON.  PXIMTEB  TE88)1C©TT;i  CORhSBC^r-^ 

Comparison  of  Greek  and  Roman  Mouldings. 

Reproduced  by  kind  permission  from  Professor  Banister  Fletcher's 

"A   History  of  Architecture"  (B.  T.  Batsford,  Publisher). 


THE  RENAISSANCE  273 

long  history  guide  us  at  the  present  time  ? 
Many  answers  have  been  given  to  this  question, 
but  the  one  I  prefer  w^as  written  by  Mr.  E.  M. 
Barry,  R.A.,  and  it  is  worth  quoting  : 

"  If  the  art-history  of  Italy  can  teach  us 
nothing  else,  it  can  at  least  show  us  a  time  when 
men  cared  about  art,  when  prince  and  people 
united  to  honour  the  artist,  and  when  great 
cities  turned  out  their  thousands  to  walk  in 
procession  after  a  work  of  genius,  or  to  follow 
a  great  painter  to  his  grave.  The  Renaissance 
also  can  indicate  to  us  a  path  by  which  an 
advance  may  be  made,  even  if  we  are  unable  to 
accept  its  principles  unreservedly.  It  was  a  time 
of  energy,  an  age  of  determination  to  carry  out 
not  only  artistic  decoration,  but  also  the  neces- 
sary public  works  of  utility,  demanded  by  the 
large  populations  which  were  beginning  to 
gather  in  the  fair  cities  of  Italy.  It  was  the 
great  ambition  of  artists  ...  to  improve  and 
adorn  their  native  places.*' 

To-day,  on  the  other  hand,  "  the  state  of  our 
huge  towns  is  too  often  an  opprobrium  not  only 
to  the  architect,  but  to  our  public  policy.  .  .  . 
Is  it  too  late  to  cleanse,  improve,  and  adorn  our 
grimy  hives  of  industry — to  bring  culture  and 
beauty  to  the  homes  of  our  vast  population  ?  " 
We  may  be  sure  of  one  thing  at  least.  All 
artistic  progress  in  the  future  must  be  sought  by 


274  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

enlisting  public  sympathies  ;  the  schoolmaster 
must  show  himself  abroad,  in  art  as  well  as  in 
literature ;  and  building  speculations  must  be 
watched  with  the  greatest  care,  particularly  by 
newspaper  critics.  There  is,  no  doubt,  a  very 
noticeable  improvement  in  large  houses,  and 
Garden  Cities  are  hopeful,  though  their  rooms 
are  usually  smaller  than  they  need  be ;  and 
among  art-workers  there  is  abundant  talent, 
which  forms  useful  societies,  like  the  Home 
Arts  and  Industries.  But  these  facts  are  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  the  ill-built  houses  in 
which  the  great  majority  of  us  have  to  make 
our  homes  at  an  excessive  cost  in  a  high-rented 
discomfort. 


m^^^m 


CHAPTER  XIV 

PAST  AND  PRESENT  ARCHITECTS 

"  r  I  ^HE  science  of  building  has  scarcely 
I  advanced  since  the  days  of  the 
M  Ptolemies,"  wrote  E.  M.  Barry, 
R.A.,  "  and  our  modern  builders  have  little  to 
boast  of."  This  criticism  is  certainly  true,  and 
the  reasons  v^hy  house  architecture  is  so  often  a 
failure  to-day,  except  in  v^ork  done  for  the 
well-to-do,  may  be  stated  in  a  few  words.  In 
former  days,  when  the  Gothic  styles  of  archi- 
tecture were  evolved,  each  generation  worked 
in  one  way  only,  all  others  being  either  false 
or  inconceivable.  Changes  came,  but  they  were 
gradual,  like  those  in  any  natural  growth  ;  they 
passed  unnoticed  when  they  first  appeared, 
though  it  is  easy  for  us  to  measure  them  over 
centuries.  The  completed  results  of  a  long 
evolution  lie  before  us  as  in  a  map,  while  those 
who  did  the  work  age  after  age  were  content  to 
do  their  best  with  a  traditional  style  which  they 
had  learnt  during  their  apprenticeship. 

All  this  has  been   changed.     "  We  have  cut 
ourselves  loose  from   tradition,"  says  Mr.  J.  J. 

275 


276  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

Stevenson.  "  Instead  of  accepting  and  trust- 
fully following  the  ways  and  customs  handed 
down  to  us,  we  claim  to  be  absolute  judges 
of  right,  and  make  our  individual  preferences 
laws.  It  would  need  omniscience  not  to  fail. 
.  .  .  We  cannot,  as  of  old,  trust  the  experts, 
for  they  are  not  themselves  agreed.  The  thread 
of  tradition  has  been  cut,  and  there  are  no 
authoritative  standards  or  articles  of  faith  to 
which  appeal  can  be  made,  and  judgment 
given."  There  is  thus  a  chaos  of  jostling 
opinions,  and  it  prevents  laymen  from  taking 
delight  in  architecture.  Why  should  you  spend 
money,  and  try  to  gratify  the  aims  of  architects, 
when  you  do  not  understand  their  discordant 
theories  and  beliefs  ? 

If  you  employ  a  common  builder  you  know 
at  once  where  you  are.  His  aim  is  one  of 
trade,  not  of  art.  From  each  job  he  earns  as 
much  money  as  he  can,  and  gives  you,  by  way 
of  compensation,  a  display  of  vulgar  ornament 
in  each  room.  Builders  have  no  doubt  at  all 
as  to  what  a  house  should  be. 

So  we  are  face  to  face  with  two  kinds  of 
domestic  architecture :  one  is  carried  on  by 
tradesmen  as  a  gambling  speculation,  while  the 
other  is  done  by  experts  working  in  different 
styles,  but  with  a  sincere  wish  to  be  thorough. 
This  division  of  labour,  by  affecting  most  of  us 


ARCHITECTS  277 

in  our  family  life,  has  been  disastrous.  It  is  so 
easy  to  harm  a  racial  character  when  bad  homes 
are  put  up  everywhere  as  a  trade  speculation  ; 
and  for  this  reason,  among  others,  no  distinction 
should  be  drawn  between  builders  and  architects. 
Houses  arc  not  inscribed  with  their  authors' 
names ;  they  are  either  good  or  bad  for  the 
nation's  family  life  ;  and  as  such  they  should  be 
judged. 

In  this  chapter,  then,  the  word  architects  will 
include  builders  also,  and  my  subject  will  be 
considered  in  its  relation  to  ordinary  house- 
holders, who  toil  hard  for  their  little  incomes. 
Many  important  matters  have  been  shame- 
i  fully  neglected  in  the  great  majority  of  modern 
houses  and  flats,  but  a  foremost  position  must  be 
given  to  walls  and  floors.  These  ought  always 
to  be  as  sound-proof  as  the  art  of  good  construc- 
tion can  make  them.  It  is  not  right — it  is 
not  even  decent — that  sounds  should  compel  us 
unwillingly  to  spy  upon  each  other's  actions  in 
private  rooms.  Modern  walls  are  as  indiscreet 
as  a  phonograph.  They  encourage  scandal  like 
village  gossip,  and  make  us  quite  as  uncivilised 
in  a  hidden  way  as  the  Saxons  were  openly  in 
their  great  hall,  where  women  and  men  dressed 
and  undressed  together,  and  did  not  mind  their 
unprivate  customs.  But  we — we  go  a  step 
beyond    th^t :  we   hear  what  th^  Saxgns  wer^ 


278  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

accustomed  to  see,  and  sounds  are  usually  more 
eloquent  than  sights,  affecting  the  imagination 
in  a  way  that  renders  it  meanly  inquisitive,  or 
cowardly  and  panic-stricken,  or  overtaxed  in 
some  other  unwholesome  manner.  To  hear  the 
murmuring  that  comes  from  a  sick-room  during 
a  time  of  dangerous  illness — the  hushed  talk,  and 
the  queer,  soft,  carpet-brushing  footsteps — to 
listen  to  that,  during  minutes  that  seem  like 
hours,  and  hours  like  days,  is  anguish.  It  were 
better  a  thousand  times  to  be  in  the  room  itself, 
where  our  eyes  could  question  and  read,  where 
the  patient's  condition  could  be  seen  truly  at  a 
glance.  And  this  applies  to  other  things  and 
sounds  either  common  or  usual  in  homes. 

When  a  person  listens  to  a  noise  and  tries  to 
guess  the  meaning  of  it  he  finds  that  many 
unexpected  things  pop  out  of  his  character. 
We  do  not  know  what  we  are  until  we  have 
been  tested  by  the  rustle  of  unseen  move- 
ments and  the  talk  of  unseen  neighbours. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  eavesdropping,  volun- 
tary and  involuntary  ;  and  the  effect  of  each 
on  character  is  demoralising.  Many  a  child 
has  had  its  mind  debased  by  the  thin  walls 
separating  modern  rooms. 

Even  sounds  that  do  not  blab  confidences, 
or  make  private  actions  known,  are  trouble- 
some   and  harmful.     A   piano    heard   from  the 


ARCHITECTS  279 

house  next  door,  or  from  a  flat  under  your  own, 
is  more  distracting  than  it  would  be  in  your 
own  study,  because  you  feel  that  you  have  no 
power  to  stop  it,  that  you  are  at  its  mercy 
whether  you  are  ill  or  well,  at  work  or  at  play. 

Sixteen  years  ago  I  lived  in  a  block  of  flats 
designed  by  an  architect.  Under  my  rooms 
dwelt  a  middle-aged  couple  who  quarrelled 
every  night  at  bed-time.  The  man,  whose 
work  was  connected  with  theatres,  came  home 
after  midnight,  and  usually  he  was  over-cheered 
with  whisky  and  water.  His  wife  "  went  for 
him "  at  once,  and  he  replied  in  thunderclaps 
of  bad  language.  To  lie  in  bed  and  listen  to 
the  midnight  battle,  several  times  every  week, 
did  not  help  me  to  love  my  neighbour  as  my- 
self. The  dispute  went  on  into  the  small  hours, 
at  which  time  a  feminine  voice  said  a  lingering 
last  word  ;  and  I  knew  from  the  snoring  which 
accompanied  it  through  my  floor  that  the  man 
was  unaware  of  his  defeat.  As  to  the  archi- 
tect who  built  those  flats,  he  ought  to  be  con- 
demned to  live  in  them  all  his  life,  with  the 
privilege  of  paying  a  second  rent  into  the 
King's  exchequer. 

What  a  "  Chronique  Scandaleuse  "  might  be 
compiled  from  the  evidence  of  those  who  have 
been  unwilling  eavesdroppers  through  walls  and 
floors  !       It  would  be  far  more  varied  than    a 


28o  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

popular  newspaper  issued  for  Sunday  recreation. 
Families  innumerable  tell  indiscreet  confidences 
to  one  another  without  knowing  it  ;  and  ser- 
vants at  the  present  time  are  unsafe  confessionals 
in  our  Protestant  homes,  for  they  repeat  what 
they  overhear. 

Meantime,  while  the  public  suffers,  what 
have  architects  to  say?  Has  their  Royal  In- 
stitute taken  any  practical  steps  at  all  likely  to 
free  us  from  an  evil  which  renders  privacy 
impossible  in  a  million  homes  ?  Has  that 
society  discussed  the  matter  at  public  meet- 
ings, or  tried  in  other  ways  to  influence  Par- 
liament ?  All  architects  own  that  our  modern 
floors  and  walls  are  rarely  as  sound-proof  as 
decency  demands,  and  some  are  advocates  in 
favour  of  stern  legislation.  Beyond  this  they  do 
not  go,  preferring  to  wait  on  events.  The 
architectural  profession  seems  to  have  taken  for 
its  motto  a  well-known  line  in  the  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream  :  "  When  my  cue  comes,  call  me, 
and  I  will  answer.''  It  is  we,  the  public,  who 
must  give  the  cue,  and  see  that  it  is  taken  up  in 
the  right  manner  and  spirit. 

Had  there  been  any  real  combination  among 
architects,  a  free  trade  in  fraudulent  building 
would  have  been  checked  many  years  ago,  just 
as  bad  sanitation  was  overcome  by  an  influence 
which    scientific    men     took    pains    to    spread 


ARCHITECTS  281 

abroad.  It  is  high  time  that  medical  officers 
of  health  should  have  a  companion  ;  we  need 
urgently  a  public  surveyor  of  houses,  with  power 
not  only  to  condemn  thin  floors  and  walls, 
but  to  report  on  wasteful  fire-grates,  ill-fitting 
windows,  and  other  home  grievances  forced 
upon  tenants  by  landlords.  For  health  is  deter- 
mined in  our  homes  by  many  things,  not  by 
drains  only. 

Further,  year  by  year  we  have  a  Medical 
Congress,  and  many  papers  read  at  it,  being 
reported  by  the  newspapers,  open  the  way  for 
many  improvements.  Will  the  Royal  Institute 
of  British  Architects  ever  begin  to  hold  in 
public  annually  a  conference  dealing  with  all 
matters  that  affect  the  British  house  ?  The 
subject  discussed  at  each  meeting  could  be 
limited  to  one  thing  of  national  value  ;  and  the 
speakers  should  not  be  architects  only,  but 
tenants  also,  and  district  nurses,  and  doctors — 
any  persons,  indeed,  who  gain  special  knowledge 
of  a  useful  kind  by  their  daily  work.  To  get 
such  varied  information  at  the  present  time  is 
exceedingly  difficult,  because  there  is  no  sys- 
tematised  means  of  collecting  it  together  ;  and 
writers  on  domestic  architecture  are  often  pre- 
judiced ;  some  have  their  own  axes  to  grind, 
while  others  think  only  of  the  good  work 
encouraged  by  rich  clients.     Truth  would  come 


282  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

out  at  a  yearly  congress,  and  tenants  would  know 
then  that  their  homes  had  a  Parliament. 

As  an  example  we  may  take  the  bathroom,  a 
necessary  room  always.  Yet  it  appears  in  most 
architectural  plans  as  a  hurried  after-thought. 
Usually  it  is  placed  in  a  dismal  corner  away  from 
the  sun,  and  the  north  light  enters  through  a 
tiny  window.  As  a  rule,  also,  it  is  too  small  for 
a  fireplace  ;  and  so  we  take  hot  baths  in  a  chil- 
lingly cold  air,  and  wonder  why  our  families  have 
coughs  in  winter.  A  great  many  dangerous 
illnesses  are  caused  in  this  way,  and  I  sometimes 
think  that  Arctic  bathrooms  account  for  many 
cases  of  "  influenza.'*  Anyhow,  the  old  hand- 
bath  was  very  much  better  for  health  and  com- 
fort, because  it  was  taken  by  a  fire  in  a  warm 
room. 

Again,  if  we  look  at  other  details  of  planning, 
with  reference  to  ordinary  houses,  and  to  flats 
for  moderate  incomes,  we  find  that  enforced  im- 
provements in  the  drains  underground  are  often 
paid  for  by  rash  economies  elsewhere,  as  in 
windows,  fireplaces,  and  doors — those  draught- 
makers.  A  keen  draught  may  be  as  harmful 
almost  as  a  defective  drain.  To  this  fact  many 
builders  close  their  minds,  as  though  they  really 
wished  to  afflict  tenants  with  a  second  income- 
tax  to  be  paid  in  doctors'  fees.  Why  else  should 
they    ventilate    their    plans    with    a    battery    of 


ARCHITECTS  283 

crossing  draughts  which  can't  be  escaped  ?  Im- 
perfect fire-grates  are  very  common  ;  only  a  stiff 
breeze  will  make  them  draw  and  keep  them 
alight,  and  this  comes  to  them  from  ill-fitting 
doors.  Then  we  have  the  greatest  enemy  of  all 
— a  huge  window,  almost  as  wide  as  the  room 
itself,  and  divided  into  several  lights.  In 
winter  this  large  surface  of  cold  glass  chills  the 
warmed  air,  and  newly-heated  air  displaces  the 
chilled,  driving  it  into  the  room — a  continuous 
draught.  Hold  your  hand  near  a  window-pane 
in  winter,  and  you  will  feel  the  movement  of 
this  air  current.  A  custom  of  breaking  up  our 
walls  with  too  much  window-space  was  brought 
into  vogue  partly  by  absurd  building  by-laws, 
and  partly  by  a  belief,  common  among  house- 
holders, that  rooms  could  not  be  well  lighted 
through  openings  just  big  enough  to  be  in  scale 
with  the  surface  area  of  the  elevations.  A  house 
riddled  with  glazed  holes  never  looks  well ;  it 
appears  unsubstantial  and  insecure,  recalling  to 
one's  recollection  a  criticism  passed  in  old  days 
on  Hardwick  Hall,  in  Derbyshire,  of  which  the 
people  said  that  it  was  "  more  glass  than  wall." 
Hardwick  was  built  between  the  years  1590  and 
1597,  so  that  a  misunderstanding  existed  in 
Elizabeth's  time  on  the  very  question  which 
we  are  now  considering.  Mr.  Guy  Dawber, 
F.R.I.B.A.,  an   excellent  authority   on   English 


284  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

architecture,  is  positive  that  our  modern  win- 
dows are  much  too  big,  and  that  we  may  learn 
many  helpful  lessons  from  well-lit  rooms  in 
old  houses,  where  the  actual  openings  are  gene- 
rally small.  Mr.  Dawber  has  other  good  things 
to  say  : 

"  Windows  should  be  all  of  the  same  cha- 
racter, and  sash  windows  and  casements  should 
not  be  placed  together,  in  positions  bearing  the 
same  relative  proportion.  Sash  windows  de- 
mand a  more  severe  handling  than  casements, 
and  a  certain  sense  of  rhythm  and  symmetry  is 
essential,  as  the  proportions  are  vertical  instead 
of  horizontal.  Nothing  is  more  unsatisfactory 
than  sash  windows  of  varying  heights  and 
widths,  particularly  when  they  are  scattered 
about  the  elevations,  since  all  dignity  is  lost 
unless  they  are  proportionate  one  to  the 
other. 

"  Casements,  to  be  sure,  can  be  treated  more 
elastically  ;  they  are  the  easiest  form  of  window 
to  deal  with,  and  allow  of  infinite  variety  in 
bays,  in  oriels,  or  in  plain  windows,  whether  of 
wood  or  stone  ;  and  they  may  be  stretched 
out  into  long  and  low  windows,  or  coupled 
together  and  by  means  of  transoms  carried  up 
to  any  height.  Upon  the  balance  and  pro- 
portion of  the  windows  much  beauty  in  a  house 
depends/' 


ARCHITECTS  285 

When  Mr.  Dawber  goes  on  to  say  that 
windows,  as  a  rule,  and  casements  particularly, 
are  too  big  and  wide,  his  one  aim  is  to 
make  us  reasonable  ;  he  does  not  wish  to 
hark  back  to  the  tiny  windows  in  Early 
Gothic  buildings.  This  problem  is  quite  a 
simple  question  of  balance  and  proportion. 
Any  educated  person  can  tell  at  a  glance 
whether  a  piece  of  furniture  is  too  large  or 
too  small  for  a  given  room  ;  and,  with  a 
little  thought  and  attention,  it  is  not  more 
difficult  to  compare  windows  with  the  masonry 
surrounding  them. 

Ruskin  speaks  about  this  subject  in  his 
"  Lectures  on  Architecture,'*  and  his  dislike 
for  the  incessant  repetition  of  square-headed 
windows  should  be  noted.  Horizontal  lines, 
repeated  by  a  thousand  window-heads  in  a 
street,  are  dull  and  monotonous,  while  a 
pointed  window  here  and  there  is  alert  and 
attractive.  A  pointed  arch,  says  Ruskin,  is 
the  most  beautiful  form  in  which  a  window 
or  door-head  can  be  built — "not  the  most 
beautiful  because  it  is  the  strongest,"  though 
it  is  stronger  than  a  horizontal  lintel,  "but 
most  beautiful  because  its  form  is  one  of 
those  which,  as  we  know  by  its  frequent 
occurrence  in  the  work  of  nature  around  us, 
has    been    appointed    by  the    Deity    to    be    an 


286  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

everlasting  source  of  pleasure  to  the  human 
mind."* 

Again,  "  you  surely  must  all  of  you  feel  and 
admit  the  delightfulness  of  a  bow  window  ;  I 
can  hardly  fancy  a  room  can  be  perfect  without 
one.  Now  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to 
resolve  that  every  one  of  your  principal  rooms 
shall  have  a  bow  window,  either  large  or  small. 
Sustain  the  projection  of  it  on  a  bracket,  crown 
it  above  with  a  little  peaked  roof,  and  give  a 
massy  piece  of  stone  sculpture  to  the  pointed 
arch  in  each  of  its  casements,  and  you  will  have 
as  inexhaustible  a  source  of  quaint  richness  in 
your  street  architecture,  as  of  additional  comfort 
and  delight  in  the  interiors  of  your  rooms." 

Then,  "  as    respects    windows   which  do  not 

project.     You    will   find   that    the    proposal    to 

build  them  with  pointed   arches   is  met  by   an 

objection  on   the    part   of  your  architects,  that 

you  cannot  fit  them  with  comfortable  sashes.     I 

beg  leave  to  tell  you  that  such  an  objection  is 

utterly  futile  and  ridiculous.     I  have  lived  for 

months  in  Gothic  palaces,  with  pointed  windows 

of  the    most    complicated    forms,    fitted    with 

*  Ruskin  counted  the  square-headed  Classic  windows  in 
Queen  Street,  Edinburgh,  including  York  Place  and  Picardy 
Place,  but  not  counting  any  window  which  had  mouldings. 
On  one  side  of  this  thoroughfare  he  found  678,  all  precisely 
similar  to  one  another,  and  altogether  devoid  of  any  relief  by 
ornamentation  1 


ARCHITECTS  287 

modern  sashes  ;  and  with  the  most  perfect  com- 
fort. But  granting  that  the  objection  were  a 
true  one — and  I  suppose  it  is  true  to  just  this 
extent,  that  it  may  cost  some  few  shillings  more 
per  window  in  the  first  instance  to  set  the  fit- 
tings to  a  pointed  arch  than  to  a  square  one — 
there  is  not  the  smallest  necessity  for  the  aperture 
of  the  window  being  of  the  pointed  shape. 
Make  the  uppermost  or  bearing  arch  pointed 
only,  and  make  the  top  of  the  window  square, 
filling  the  interval  with  a  stone  shield,  and  you 
may  have  a  perfect  school  of  architecture,  not 
only  consistent  with,  but  eminently  conducive 
to,  every  comfort  of  your  daily  life." 

It  is  not  always  safe  to  accept  Ruskin  as  a 
guide  in  domestic  architecture ;  some  of  his 
views  are  certainly  open  to  question,  though 
interesting  and  full  of  verve  ;  now  and  then, 
when  speaking  of  styles  which  we  ought  to 
adopt  for  modern  use,  he  has  Italy  in  mind 
rather  than  England  ;  but  in  his  admiration  for 
pointed  windows  he  is  practically  useful  to  us, 
for  the  beauty  of  that  type  of  window  has  been 
handed  on  to  us  with  our  cathedrals  and  village 
churches,  and  we  love  it  instinctively. 

Place  two  good  designs  side  by  side,  let  one 
be  Gothic  and  the  other  in  keeping  with  the 
spirit  of  Classic  architecture,  and  I  wager  that 
ninety-nine  Englishmen  in  a  hundred  will  choose 


288  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  Gothic  at  once,  without  a  moment*s  hesita- 
tion. "  This  is  what  we  like/*  they  will  say. 
Architects  are  very  apt  to  forget  this  spontaneous 
popular  verdict,  and,  forgetting  it,  they  design 
a  good  many  public  buildings  that  the  man  in 
the  street  neither  likes  nor  tries  to  understand. 
Perhaps  they  believe  that  they  have  a  right 
to  force  their  own  tastes  on  their  unmoved 
countrymen  ;  but  no  art  can  govern  the  present 
or  the  future  unless  people  are  drawn  towards 
it  by  a  natural  impulse  and  a  sympathy  un- 
sought. 

When  there  were  few  architects  in  England 
each  county  had  tradition^  of  domestic  building, 
precepts  of  taste  and  style  as  popular  as  the 
local  accent  in  speech.  From  one  generation  to 
another  they  were  handed  on,  improving  with 
the  social  manners  and  customs.  Ordinary 
masons  understood  these  inherited  ways  of  work, 
and  used  them  in  the  happiest  manner,  for  they 
brought  into  their  architecture  a  freshness  of 
feeling,  a  quaint,  romantic  sincerity,  not  unlike 
that  which  gave  charm  to  folk-songs  and  ballads. 
English  home  architecture  had  then  a  national 
language  enriched  with  many  pleasant  dialects, 
and  a  traveller  might  know  in  what  county  he 
was  by  looking  at  water-mills,  and  cottages,  and^ 
farmhouses.  ™ 

Even  now,  after  a  century  given  to  botched 


cc     c   c 


ARCHITECTS  289 

craftsmanship,  English  villages  retain  enough 
old  architecture  to  mark  the  chief  and  distin- 
guishing characteristics  of  local  method  and 
tradition  in  the  various  types  of  country  house. 
Thus,  for  example,  you  will  remember  with 
delight  the  East  Anglian  homes  built  of  brick 
and  flint,  their  pantile  roofs  diapered  with 
glazed  tiles.  Then  there  are  districts  where 
quiet,  dignified  houses  look  at  us  with  white 
windows  framed  in  red-brick  walls,  as  in  Berk- 
shire and  the  Thames  valley  ;  or  we  may  go 
into  the  counties  of  Gloucester,  Oxford,  Wor- 
cester, and  Northants,  where  stone  buildings 
make  us  familiar  with  the  Cotswold  style,  which 
belongs  to  the  period  between  1580  and  1690. 
It  was  linked  at  first  with  the  last  development  of 
Gothic  architecture,  the  Perpendicular  manner, 
which  arose  gradually  from  the  Decorated  style 
during  the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
and  continued  to  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth. 
Cotswold  builders,  who  were  encouraged  by 
well-to-do  sheep-farmers,  were  loyal  to  the  bold 
and  good  qualities  of  Early  Perpendicular  ;  for 
they  could  not  afford  to  imitate  the  elaborate 
work  common  to  that  style  in  its  last  days.  This 
was  fortunate,  because  the  tendency  in  all  human 
work  that  is  done  with  honest  care  is  to  pass 
from  simple  effects  into  a  weakening  debauch  of 
ornament.     The  first  principle  of  all  fine  archi- 


290  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

lecture  condemns  this  tendency,  and  says  that 
the  purpose  of  all  detail  and  tracery  is  to  strike 
the  eye  as  ornamented  construction,  not  to  draw 
attention  to  itself  as  constructed  ornament.  For 
example,  a  window  is  designed  to  give  light  in 
an  attractive  way,  and  light  is  made  beautiful  by 
passing  through  tinted  panes  ;  stonework  may 
be  carried  across  the  top  in  a  scroll  of  pierced 
tracery,  because  that  enriches  the  structural  form 
of  a  window  arch  ;  but  when  tracery  hides  the 
greater  part  of  the  glazed  surface  a  mason's 
craft  has  become  more  important  than  the  light 
which  a  window  ought  to  give,  and  is  therefore 
used  in  a  wrong  manner.  English  provincial 
methods  were  good  just  because  they  progressed 
under  conditions  very  friendly  to  excellent  work 
of  a  simple  kind.  No  countryside  was  then  em- 
barrassed by  a  dozen  different  styles,  each  with 
a  little  circle  of  admirers.  There  was  but  one 
parent  style,  and  it  passed  from  churches  into 
homes ;  for  the  separation  of  religious  and 
domestic  architecture  is  modern  and  foolish,  a 
home  being  as  sacred  as  a  church  when  its  life 
is  worthy.  Englishmen  in  early  times  used  Gothic 
for  their  houses,  but  translated  it  to  suit  their 
needs,  showing,  as  we  know,  in  various  parts  of 
the  country,  various  qualities  of  local  taste  and 
method.  Time  passed,  these  characteristics  were 
developed,  and  each  county  took  just  pride  in 


ARCHITECTS  291 

its  own  ways  of  building,  in  its  own  type  of 
house  ;  so  the  people's  taste  was  formed  by  its 
own  habits  and  traditions,  and  its  judgments, 
accordingly,  were  useful.  Further,  builders  were 
granted  money  enough  for  the  doing  of  good 
simple  work,  but  no  farmer,  no  landowner,  was 
willing  to  spend  his  capital  on  unnecessary  detail 
and  ornament ;  and  thus  the  humbler  kinds  of 
English  house  were  saved  from  that  over- 
elaboration  which  found  its  way,  here  and  there, 
into  churches  and  into  large  country  mansions, 
when  a  restraining  need  of  money  was  not  there 
to  act  as  a  despotic  editor. 

Perhaps  some  exceptions  to  this  rule  are 
to  be  met  with  among  the  half-timbered 
houses  of  Cheshire  and  Lancashire,  the  walls  of 
which  are  at  times  too  variegated  with  black- 
and-white  patterns,  not  unlike  an  old  bed- 
quilt.  In  the  Cotswold  districts,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  stern  logic  in  the  art  of  simple  building 
was  handed  on  with  admirable  common  sense  ; 
and  any  one  who  intends  to  build  for  himself  an 
English  stone  house  ought  to  visit  those  districts 
where  lessons  in  the  essentials  of  home  architec- 
ture are  abundant.  Gables  are  very  well  treated  ; 
muUioned  windows  with  square  dripstones  are 
other  Gothic  characteristics  ;  and  the  masonry 
is  excellent.  A  house  from  outside  should 
suggest  comfort  and   convenience   within,    and 


292  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

this  the  Cotswold  houses  rarely  fail  to  do  in 
the  following  localities  : 

Gloucestershire  :  Stanton,  Willersey,  Paxford, 
Withington,  Stow-on-the-Wold,  Little  Rissing- 
ton,  Mickleton,  Lechlade,  Coin  St.  Aldwyn, 
Stroud,  Weston  Subedge,  Aston  Subedge,  Bi- 
bury,  Arlington,  Chipping  Campden,  Ebrington, 
Painswick,  Coin  Roger,  Bourton-on-the-Water, 
Laverton,  Lilfield,  Snowshill,  Stanway,  Saint- 
bury,  and  Cirencester. 

Northants  :  Harringworth,  Gretton,  Blis- 
worth,  CoUey  Weston,  Stamford,  Yarwell, 
Duddington,  Oundle,  and  Nassington. 

Oxfordshire  :  Finstock,  Ducklington,  Rams- 
den,  Bampton,  and  Burford. 

Good  examples  may  be  found  at  all  these 
places,  and  at  Broadway,  in  Worcestershire,  rang- 
ing from  cottages  to  manor-houses,  and  from  street 
dwellings  to  farms  and  rectories.  I  give  two 
examples,  and  many  other  specimens  may  be 
found  in  Mr.  E.  Guy  Dawber's  excellent 
handbook,  with  photographs  by  W.  G.  Davie, 
published  by  B.  T.  Batsford  in  1905. 

Although  the  Cotswold  style  is  full  of 
"grit,"  you  will  find  that  its  granite-like 
qualities  are  softened  by  the  same  feeling  for 
romance  that  timber  houses  have,  and  that 
belongs  to  a  time  when  costumes  were  pictur- 
esque and  when   flowers  were  carried  by   men 


ARCHITECTS  293 

at  May  Day  festivals.  We  must  never  dis- 
sociate the  romance  of  Gothic  art  from  the 
mediaeval  delight  in  gay  colours  and  in  lively 
pageants.  Modern  architects  try  to  repeat  this 
old  quality,  but  not  often  v^ith  great  success. 
Too  often  the  romance  does  not  appear  at  all, 
and  architects  marvel  why  their  adapted  home- 
liness should  look  dull  and  cold.  The  reason,  I 
believe,  is  not  usually  far  to  seek.  An  architect 
should  take  his  art  into  the  open  air.  He 
works  far  too  much  in  a  stuffy  office,  for  ever 
annoyed  by  a  ringing  telephone  bell,  and  with 
so  many  helpers  at  times  that  he  is  spared  neces- 
sary thought.  This  may  be  favourable  to  a  man 
whose  skill  in  obtaining  commissions  happens 
to  be  his  only  talent  for  architecture  ;  but  it  is 
not  at  all  likely  to  encourage  the  best  work, 
because  domestic  architecture  is  not  merely  a 
thing  of  town  business  habits. 

This  matter  concerns  every  man  in  the  street, 
because  rents  are  affected  by  building  methods 
as  well  as  by  house  agents.  London  is  rapidly 
becoming  a  place  where  a  moderate  income  is  not 
only  a  tragedy,  but  a  tragedy  half  played,  with 
a  workhouse  to  follow  in  a  logical  third  act. 
This  means  that  an  average  wage  cannot  afford 
to  pay  an  average  rent.  Anything,  then,  which 
raises  a  landlord's  cost  in  building  raises  the  rent 
at  the  same  time  ;  and  so  we  must  understand 


li 


294  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

an  architect's  position  as  it  affects  the  finance  of 
house  architecture. 

First,  then,  in  what  way  is  he  paid  ?  His 
professional  value  to  his  client  should  be  deter- 
mined by  two  things  :  his  ability  and  his  fame. 
As  a  specialist,  a  professional  man,  his  market 
value  is  made  by  his  success.  Yet,  somehow, 
his  profession  has  brought  into  vogue  a  stereo- 
typed method  of  payment,  and  this  method 
is  opposed  to  all  principles  of  good  finance. 
Setting  aside  out-of-pocket  expenses,  like  rail- 
way fares,  an  architect  receives  5  per  cent, 
on  the  cost  of  production,  when  that  cost  is 
more  than  jTiooo.  Think  what  that  means. 
You  call  in  a  man  to  help  you  to  spend  your 
money  for  a  given  purpose,  and  you  find  that 
you  must  ascertain  his  worth  to  you  by  the 
amount  of  money  he  can  encourage  you  to 
spend.  No  sooner  does  he  suggest  an  improve- 
ment than  you  begin  to  feel  suspicious.  "  Is 
it  necessary  ?  "  you  think  to  yourself  ;  "  or  is  it  a 
dodge  to  run  up  the  costs  ?  "  It  were  better 
for  him  and  you,  and  better  for  the  work  in 
hand,  if  he  received  fees  like  a  barrister,  or 
like  a  specialist  doctor.  One  may  say  this  and 
yet  be  well  aware  of  all  the  difficulties  by  which 
this  question  is  surrounded,  for  there  is  certainly 
among  architects  a  keen  struggle  to  get  the  best 
results  at  the  smallest  possible  expense.     I  have 


ARCHITECTS  295 

never  known  it  otherwise  with  any  architect  of 
my  acquaintance.  But  the  main  point  is  that 
all  business  should  be  carried  on  in  accordance 
with  usual  business  customs,  and  a  percentage  on 
the  cost  of  production  is  unusual.  That  is  why 
it  excites  suspicion.  Nor  is  it  fair  to  architects, 
since  the  cost  of  a  thing  does  not  determine  its 
beauty  and  artistic  value.  A  small  house  by  a 
great  architect  is  worth  a  great  deal  more  to 
any  client  than  a  large  one  by  a  designer  with 
less  talent  and  experience.  Yet  the  larger  house 
at  the  present  time  would  be  more  profitable  to 
its  architect. 

Further,  if  domestic  architecture  is  an  art, 
and  not  merely  a  trade,  its  followers  ought  to 
live  and  work  as  artists;  they  cannot  lose  by  so 
doing,  and  certainly  they  have  lost  much  through 
a  parade  of  methods  opposed  to  art.  In  their 
profession  there  is  talk  from  time  to  time  about 
"  the  working  ghost "  ;  and  a  routine  of  city 
business,  with  all  its  worries  and  office  troubles, 
must  interfere  with  the  personal  attention  which 
every  craftsman  should  give  to  his  designs. 
Under  such  conditions  no  man  could  paint  well, 
or  compose  an  opera,  or  write  a  good  book  ; 
these  things  require  time,  thought,  quietness, 
concentration,  and  invention.  Are  we,  then,  to 
suppose  that  architecture,  unlike  other  arts,  makes 
few  calls  on  the  higher  faculties  of  a  mind  ? 


296  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

In  so  far  as  domestic  architecture  is  con- 
cerned, this  question  must  be  answered  affir- 
matively, because  our  English  house  creeps 
through  the  centuries  in  a  very  slow  evolution, 
showing  little  creative  work  in  any  hundred 
years.  How  different  it  is  from  the  art  of  paint- 
ing under  the  Van  Eycks,  which  rises  suddenly 
to  perfection  !  Here  there  is  great  invention 
and  true  genius  ;  while  in  home  architecture, 
its  history  and  progress,  we  think  always,  not 
of  men,  but  of  manners,  not  of  artists  eager  to 
create,  but  of  a  whole  conservative  nation, 
reluctant  to  give  up  any  custom,  however  primi- 
tive and  barbaric.  This  does  not  invite  us  to 
think  about  architects.  It  is  the  national  life, 
the  national  character  itself,  that  rules  here, 
from  earliest  times  to  our  own  day.  Every 
change  in  the  house  plan  has  denoted  one  of 
two  things  :  some  change  in  household  customs, 
or  some  new  discovery,  which  architects  have 
not  (as  a  rule)  originated,  as  in  improved 
methods  of  sanitation  and  of  lighting.  These 
things,  no  doubt,  are  problems  to  be  solved, 
and  many  a  builder  shakes  his  head  over 
them  and  pulls  a  wry  face,  not  unlike  a  domes- 
tic servant  over  spring  cleaning.  When  his 
cue  comes,  and  we  call  him,  he  answers  with 
some  reluctance,  because  he  is  really  troubled 
by   new  difficulties,    even    when    they   are    less 


c     ,c    ,cc    .c.ccc    c  .      ^ 

t     <  C       C  ,   t 

c  '    c  c    e '     c  c'    c    -^  c - 


ARCHITECTS  297 

bothering  than  those  which  a  good  chess-player 
meets  with  in  every  game.  "  In  old  times,'* 
he  says  dolefully,  "  a  builder  was  not  worried 
as  I  am  ;  sanitation  was  very  primitive  ;  there 
was  no  network  of  pipes  and  drains,  no  system 
of  hot  and  cold  water,  no  gas  and  electricity, 
and  no  fellows  outside  to  make  improvements 
for  this,  that,  and  the  other.*' 

Such,  then,  is  the  average  builder.  He  in- 
""vents  very  little  himself,  and  is  not  particularly 
delighted  when  discoveries  by  other  men  oblige 
him  to  modify  his  methods  of  work.  It  has 
been  his  lot  to  move  slowly  forward  with  an 
old  routine.  Other  artists,  again  and  again, 
have  been  far  in  advance  of  their  own  age  and 
generation  ;  while  he  has  never  been  quite 
contemporary  with  the  present  day,  with  his 
own  time.  We  are  always  waiting  for  some- 
thing which  he  does  not  give  ;  better  windows, 
for  instance,  which,  while  ventilating  our  rooms 
in  summer,  will  keep  out  the  street  dust  and 
its  microbes.  This  shows  a  slowness  of  mind 
in  all  that  belongs  to  creative  work,  and  it  has 
ever  been  noticeable  in  home  buildings. 

At  a  time  when  the  Gothic  movement  in 
churches  reached  its  zenith,  during  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries,  English  houses  were  still 
rather  primitive.  Why  ?  It  was  because  the 
Church  would  not  linger  by  the  way,  but  urged 


298  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

architects  on.  Rapid  progress  was  demanded,  so 
the  Anglo-Norman  style  was  developed  with 
enthusiasm,  and  the  Early  English  type  of 
church  came  into  being.  In  castles,  too, 
architects  made  progress,  driven  forward  by 
military  wants,  which  changed  rapidly ;  but  else- 
where, in  ordinary  homes,  there  was  little  eager- 
ness for  change,  so  progress  was  determined  by  a 
pressure  of  social  needs  on  the  people's  conserva- 
tism, and  how  ineffectual  that  pressure  was  during 
long  periods  may  be  judged  from  one  fact  in  the 
history  of  halls.  As  late  as  the  forty-fourth  year 
of  Henry  III.'s  reign,  a.d.  1261,  all  foul  water 
from  the  royal  kitchens  at  Westminster  flowed 
through  the  two  halls.  Henry  noticed  that  the 
smell  from  this  open  drain  did  harm  to  his 
courtiers  and  visitors,  so  he  ordered  his  mason, 
John  of  Gloucester,  to  make  "  a  certain  conduit " 
through  which  all  refuse  might  pass  into  the 
Thames.  This  conduit  was  a  sewer  under- 
ground ;  hence  it  implies  that  some  knowledge 
of  sanitation  existed  then.  Yet  an  open  drain 
was  kept  open  till  the  year  1261,  in  a  king's 
palace,  as  though  courtiers  were  as  primitively 
unrefined  as  in  Saxon  times.  During  all  the 
many  years  in  which  that  dangerous  thing  pol- 
luted English  houses  architects  were  at  work, 
but  they  could  not  advance  more  rapidly  than 
the  domestic  civilisation  of  their  times. 


ARCHITECTS  299 

Even  to-day,  though  we  talk  much  about 
hygiene,  there  is  at  times  a  singular  disregard 
for  health.  Many  flats  are  planned  with  great 
carelessness.  There  are  some  with  bedrooms 
that  open  into  the  kitchens,  and  there  are  others 
even  worse.  In  these  all  "  slops "  have  to  be 
carried  through  the  kitchens,  and  think  what 
that  would  mean  at  a  time  of  infectious  illness. 

What  do  these  facts  signify  ?  Do  they  prove 
that  architects  are  useless  ?  This  question  has 
been  debated  by  several  writers  of  eminence, 
and  I  cannot  do  better  than  give  you  the  opinions 
expressed  by  Mr.  Fergusson,  whose  "  History  of 
Architecture  ''  is  a  thorough  text-book  of  great 
value.  He  represents  an  extreme  school  of 
thought  in  all  that  belongs  to  an  architect's 
position.  His  facts  are  well  stated,  but  his 
deductions  run  into  the  Middle  Ages,  where  the 
present  time  cannot  go.  It  ought  to  be  easy  to 
improve  modern  methods  of  producing  archi- 
tecture, but  we  cannot  return  to  the  spirit  that 
put  life  into  mediaeval  ways  of  work,  as  Mr. 
Fergusson  desires.  Still,  his  criticisms  are  brisk 
and  thoughtful.  "An  architect  in  practice," 
he  says  with  some  truth,  "  can  never  afford  many 
i  hours  to  the  artistic  elaboration  of  his  designs,'* 
and  this  explains  "  the  remarkably  small  amount 
of  thought  that  a  modern  building  ever  dis- 
plays."    Further,  "  the  evil  has  been  aggravated 


300  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

in  modern  times  by  architecture  being  handed 
over  too  exclusively  to  professional  men  who 
live  by  it,  and  generally  succeed  more  from  their 
businesslike  habits  than  their  artistic  powers." 
Here  there  is  truth  of  a  distorted  kind. 
The  tyranny  of  mere  business  over  art  is 
apparent  in  all  branches  of  modern  English 
architecture,  except  in  large  houses  for  the 
well-to-do.  But  you  would  not  gain  by  design- 
ing your  own  home  or  by  setting  an  amateur 
to  do  it  for  you,  because  years  would  pass  before 
you  or  he  could  pick  up  the  technical  experi- 
ence which  an  architect  has  at  his  command, 
and  without  which  co-operative  work  with 
craftsmen  is  impossible. 

To  understand  Fergusson's  opinions  we  must 
remember  that  his  ideals  of  work  were  those  of 
a  writer  on  history,  the  most  exacting  of  all 
studies.  He  was  thus  astonished  by  the  contrast 
between  his  own  toil  and  the  ease  with  which 
architects  did  their  familiar  plans.  "These 
eminent  persons,"  he  wrote,  "have  been  the 
bane  of  art  for  the  last  three  hundred  years." 
Their  profession  is  a  "  spurious  "  thing,  he  con- 
tinued, very  different  from  the  practical  and 
thorough  system  that  gave  England  her  mediaeval 
churches.  Workmen  in  those  days  were  fine 
craftsmen,  and  their  chief,  the  master  workman, 
was  a  true  architect,  for  he  had  enough  "  imagi- 


ARCHITECTS  301 

native  power  **  to  be  "  the  life  of  art  "  ;  "  and 
in  like  manner  the  emancipated  workman, 
gloriously  impelled,  must  always  be,  and  is,  the 
only  real  hope  of  English  architecture."  What 
will  the  trade  unions  say  to  that  ?  Dreams  are 
pleasant,  and  Mr.  Fergusson  perceived,  amid 
the  fogs  and  horrors  of  an  industrial  age,  a  new 
great  architecture  somewhere  in  the  future,  and 
a  new  spirit  among  builders.  "  There  will  then 
be  no  need  of  the  profession,  and  architects 
will  subside  into  their  proper  places  as  book- 
makers, artists,  business-men,  students  of  sym- 
bolism and  archeology,  and,  in  fact,  pupils  and 
illustrators  of  those  very  workmen  whom  they 
now  profess  to  direct  and  to  control." 

Mr.  J.  J.  Stevenson,  in  his  "  House  Archi- 
tecture," published  in  1880,  replies  to  Mr.  Fer- 
gusson's  crusade  ;  and,  while  admitting  "  that  a 
large  proportion  of  modern  houses  are  archi- 
tectural failures,"  he  declines  to  give  up  hope. 
Modern  architecture  is  certainly  ill ;  both  writers 
agree  on  that  point  ;  but  Mr.  Fergusson  thinks 
of  his  patient's  funeral,  while  Mr.  Stevenson 
wants  to  aid  in  a  recovery  of  health.  One 
is  a  keen  undertaker,  the  other  a  good  doctor. 
But  both  agree  in  their  diagnosis  :  present 
times  are  inferior  to  the  past,  they  say. 
"  Every  old  house  is  interesting,"  remarks  Mr. 
Stevenson,  "  not  because  it  is  old,  but  because  it 


302  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

is  good.  The  style  of  one  age  may  be  better 
than  another,  but  all  are  good  in  their  way.  .  .  . 
Old  Gothic  houses  of  every  period  of  the  style 
are  beautiful.  .  .  .  Some  may  be  better  than 
others,  but  there  are  no  failures  such  as  we  now 
constantly  see  produced.  All  are  good  archi- 
tecture of  their  kind,  not  great  mansions  only, 
but  farmhouses  and  cottages  in  village  streets. 
And  these  results  were  accomplished,  not  by  a 
specially  educated  profession,  like  the  architects 
of  the  present  day,  directing  the  tradesmen  by 
means  of  drawings  and  instructions,  but  by 
common  tradesmen  themselves,  without  any 
superintendence.  Every  village  mason  could 
build  houses  and  churches  such  as  for  excellence 
and  accuracy  in  architectural  style  we  vainly 
now,  with  all  our  knowledge,  attempt  to 
imitate." 

Not  that  village  masons  were  the  only  admir- 
able builders.  There  were  architects  of  a  dif- 
ferent class,  learned  men  rather  than  workmen  ; 
and  you  will  find,  in  Britton's  "  Christian 
Architecture,"  the  names  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty,  together  with  the  churches  which  they 
designed.  They  worked  in  England  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  so  that  modern  architects  have 
a  good  ancestry,  and  their  duty  is  to  uphold  its 
best  traditions. 

Again,  is  it  not  time  that  architects  should  have 


ARCHITECTS  303 

a  degree,  not  only  recognised  by  the  State,  but 
accorded  by  the   State  ?      Degrees,  to  be  sure, 
do  *  not    guarantee   a    practical   efficiency  ;    but 
they  give  men  a  professional  status,  and  exami- 
i  nations    are    feared    by    charlatans    and  duffers ; 
and  this  has  a  real  importance  when  a  profession 
affects  a  nation's  life  and  character,  as  in  architec- 
ture, in  medicine,  and  in  Holy  Orders.     For  this 
reason,  too,  public  opinion  should  be  an  architect's 
critic  as  well  as  his  client.     At  present  he  never 
i  feels  that  whip  with  a  thousand  thongs  which 
newspapers    keep    for  writers,    painters,    actors, 
and    dramatists.      A    writer    of  a    bad    play  is 
flogged  in  one  week    by  all  the    leading  news- 
papers in  England,  for  those   in  country  places 
quote    from     the    best-known    London    critics. 
Indeed,  there  is  so  much  ado    that  a  bad  play 
might  well  be  a  danger  to  the  British  Empire. 
Yet  it  does  harm  only  to  the  dramatist  and  his 
company  ;  while  a  single  bad  plumber,  a  single 
slipshod  builder,    does  more  mischief  in  a  year 
than  all  the  bad  plays  written  in  a  century. 
I      What   we  need,  then,    first  and   foremost,  is 
newspaper    criticism    for    all  who    are  engaged 
in    house    architecture.     It    is    absurd  that  the 
t  most  necessary  of  all  arts — the  one  that  affects 
'  a  nation's  home  life    and  character — should  be 
free  from  public  criticism.     And  then,  of  course, 
there  is  the  all-important  relation  of  architects 


304  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

with  their  clients.      Ought  they  to  have  a  free 
hand  ?      Which   styles  are  best    suited    to    our 
wants  and  to  our  climate  ?     In  what  way  ought' 
designs  to  be  submitted  for  approval,  and  how 
should  clients  study  them? 

These    questions   will    be    considered    in    the 
next  and  last  chapter. 


•  »   '1 

•  •     > 


c        c  r  c       c  (        ( 

V     c  c;  <   /c  <        c 

t  c  c  t  «   c  c        t 

c  t  e'     c  f  c 


CHAPTER  XV 
ARCHITECTS  AND  THEIR  CLIENTS 

MANY  architects  are  of  opinion  that 
they  ought  to  have  a  free  hand  after 
their  designs  have  been  approved. 

Why  ?  Other  professional  men  have  a  public 
to  fear,  and  the  King  himself  is  influenced  by 
popular  opinion.  Should  an  architect  be  an 
exception  ? 

One  critic  gives  the  following  reply  :  "  The 
relation  of  an  architect  towards  his  client  is  a 
matter  of  very  great  importance.  To  describe 
it  accurately  is  difficult,  but  one  may  say  with 
truth  that  the  average  client  either  regards 
an  architect  with  indiffisrence,  or  else  looks 
upon  him  with  some  suspicion  as  an  expensive 
luxury."  This  applies  also  to  the  popular  notion 
of  many  other  public  servants,  like  doctors, 
lawyers,  and  barristers.  We  don't  love  these 
men,  but  we  go  to  them  when  we  need  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  "only  a  person  here  and 
there  recognises  an  architect  as  a  quite  neces- 
sary adviser,"  which  implies  something  wrong 
in    the    state    of  England  or    in    the    profession 

305  u 


3o6  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

of  architecture — maybe  in  both.  Then  the 
critic  goes  on  to  say  "  that  when  an  archi- 
tect of  position  is  given  a  free  hand,  more  or 
less,  the  house  he  builds  is  a  real  success, 
harmonious  in  all  its  parts,  being  carried  out 
as  a  single  scheme  in  obedience  to  the  direc- 
tion of  one  trained  mind."  But  this  point, 
even  when  granted,  does  not  carry  us  to 
any  definite  conclusion.  An  architect  builds 
a  house  not  for  his  own  use,  but  for  that  of 
his  employer,  and  the  best  judges  may  hold 
divergent  opinions  on  the  simplest  questions 
of  good  taste.  To  complain  is  futile,  and 
to  whimper  about  it  is  nothing  more  than  a 
trivial  adventure  in  self-pity.  "  It  is  not  often," 
we  are  told,  "  that  an  architect  has  a  free  hand. 
His  art  is  usually  a  thing  of  compromise  ;  and 
what  can  be  more  disheartening  to  a  man  of 
genius  than  compromise,  in  an  essential  matter 
of  design  and  art  ? "  Yet  this  trouble  has  to 
be  borne  by  all  artists.  Those  who  live  to 
please  must  please  to  live.  Thackeray,  for 
example,  had  a  wish  to  draw  a  young  man 
truly,  though  with  less  detail  by  far  than  Field- 
ing allowed  himself  in  "  Tom  Jones  "  ;  but  his 
readers  cried  out  for  compromise,  some  cancelled 
their  subscriptions,  and  the  author  wrote  with 
frankness  of  his  defeat.  He  was  wistful  rather 
than   surprised   or  indignant ;  and  that  is  what 


ARCHITECTS  AND  CLIENTS     307 

an  architect  of  genius  should  be  when  he  is 
obliged  to  compromise. 

Besides  that,  there  is  no  reason  in  domestic 
architecture  to  talk  of  genius,  because  the  pro- 
gress of  building  has  owed  little  to  individual 
men,  being  a  thing  of  very  slow  and  gradual 
development ;  and  for  this  reason,  when  an  archi- 
tect begins  to  talk  about  originality,  new  schemes, 
and  other  great  ideas,  a  discreet  client  is  not  in  the 
'  least  awed.  His  one  wish — and  there  is  no  harm 
in  it — is  to  have  a  simple,  good  house  that  will 
not  invite  too  much  attention,  like  the  originality 
of  TArt  Nouveau.  He  does  not  want  his 
neighbours  to  say,  "  Oh,  yes,  how  novel !  how 
very  remarkable  !  " 

A  desire  to  be  original  at  any  cost  is  now  so 
common  among  artists  that  a  fettered  hand  is 
coming  rapidly  into  vogue,  imposed  by  a  dearth 
of  buyers  and  patrons.  L'Art  Nouveau  had  a 
short  reign  with  English  house-builders,  who 
did  not  enjoy  the  popular  verdict  passed  upon 
it  in  country  places  ;  and  this  experiment  in 
"  created  architecture,"  as  it  was  called,  stares 
at  us  in  public  places.  Its  results  cannot  be 
put  out  of  sight,  like  bad  pictures  and  dead 
books.  To  ask  for  a  free  hand  in  house  archi- 
tecture is  not  politic. 

This  said,  we  can  pass  on  to  the  plans  and 
elevations  as  they  affect  a  client's  home  interests. 


3o8  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

On  this  matter  a  good  many  necessary  things 
ought  to  have  been  written  long  ago.  First  as 
regards  the  choice  of  a  style.  You  can  never 
go  w^rong  if  you  choose  the  local  style  that 
flourished  years  ago  in  your  part  of  England. 
It  is  native  to  the  place,  it  is  quiet  and  beautiful  ; 
and  it  will  seem  new  when  adapted  to  your 
present-day  needs,  because  your  architect  will 
put  something  of  himself  into  his  modernised 
version. 

Perhaps  you  may  live  in  a  district  where  local 
by-laws  forbid  you  to  build  a  weather-boarded 
house  of  the  Kentish  type,  though  it  is  good 
and  safe  when  constructed  in  a  right  way. 
Reform  in  by-laws  that  affect  architecture  is 
a  question  of  the  hour  ;  and,  happily,  the 
Local  Government  Board  is  alive  to  this  fact. 
To  forbid  good  methods  and  materials,  while 
sanctioning  any  amount  of  horrible  jerry-labour, 
is  Gilbertian  irony  in  a  tragic  vein.  Still,  if 
you  may  not  build  a  weather-boarded  house, 
choose  with  care  and  judgment  some  other 
familiar  style,  like  the  Cotswold  ;  it  will  not 
be  discordant  in  any  country  district,  because 
English  landscape  is  English  everywhere,  like 
the  character  in  local  types  of  cottage,  and 
farm,  and  manor-house.  For  all  that,  your  style 
should  be  chosen  with  your  site  when  you  go 
outside    your    own    neighbourhood   for    a    type 


Kentish  Houses  at  Tonbridge. 

Reproduced  by  kind  permission  of  Mr.   B.  T.    Batsford,   from   INIr.  E.   Guy 

Dawber's  book  on  Kent  and  Sussex. 


ARCHITECTS  AND  CLIENTS     309 

of  house.  Grey  stone  may  be  too  cold  in 
colour  for  some  places  ;  and  there  is  a  kind  of 
native  affinity  between  the  wooded  landscapes 
of  Surrey  or  Sussex  and  the  rich,  tiled  buildings. 
In  this  matter  your  architect  will  help  you  ; 
but  do  not  swerve  from  your  determination  to 
be  English.  Your  position  is  that  of  an  editor 
who  wants  a  given  subject  put  into  an 
English  dialect,  not  into  Anglo-Italian,  nor 
any  other  style  that  centuries  of  copying  have 
brought  into  England  as  a  free  import. 

This  choice  of  a  style  being  settled,  plans 
come  in  to  disturb  your  peace,  though  they 
seem  at  first  to  be  simple  things.  Your 
architect  examines  the  site,  measures  it,  notes 
where  the  trees  grow,  studies  the  landscape  back- 
ground, and  reminds  you  somehow  of  a  good 
chess-player  face  to  face  with  a  new  problem. 
There  is  nothing  unimportant  here  ;  everything 
counts  for  much  in  the  game  to  be  played. 
When  this  examination  of  the  site  is  finished 
there  are  several  things  which  you  must  not  fail 
to  do,  unless  you  want  to  be  disappointed  with 
the  plans.  If  you  have  furniture  and  intend  to 
use  it  in  your  new  house,  you  should  prepare  a 
complete  list  of  it,  with  the  exact  size  of  each 
piece,  naming  the  room  in  which  it  will  be  put ; 
and  you  should  ask  the  architect  to  show  on  his 
plans  how  the  furniture  will  be  placed  in  each 


3IO  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

room.  This  matter  is  worth  noting,  because  it 
is  all-important  that  house  and  furniture  should 
go  well  together.  You  wish  to  be  certain,  for 
example,  that  your  study  will  be  large  enough  for 
your  bookcases  ;  and  that  when  the  writing-table 
is  put  in  its  position,  with  the  light  falling  over 
your  left  shoulder,  you  will  be  able  to  move 
without  jamming  your  chair  against  a  bookcase. 
This  sort  of  thing  happens  in  thousands  of 
studies.  I  am  sitting  now  at  my  desk  in  a 
London  flat,  with  a  huge  window  before  me,  and 
a  great  draught  passing  between  it  and  a  badly 
placed  door ;  some  architect  quite  forgot  to 
think  of  furniture  when  he  designed  the  room. 
If  I  turn  my  desk  sideways  there  is  less  than  a 
yard's  space  between  my  chair  and  a  print-chest. 
But  I  do  not  know  what  difficulties  the  archi- 
tect had  to  contend  against.  Possibly  that  ill- 
placed  door  made  an  increase  of  five  shillings 
a  week  in  the  rent  of  the  whole  block,  and 
to  matters  of  this  kind  landlords  attach  great 
importance. 

How  many  bedrooms  do  you  know  in  which 
the  furniture  does  not  occupy  far  too  much 
air-space  ?  How  many  dining-rooms  where  a 
waitress  can  move  with  comfort  to  herself  and 
others  ?  Such  rooms  are  not  to  be  found  in 
houses  and  flats  for  moderate  incomes.  You 
may  spend  ^C^oo  ^  year  in  rent  for  a  flat,  and 


ARCHITECTS  AND  CLIENTS     311 

get  unhealthy  band-box  rooms.  But  since  you 
intend  to  build  a  house  for  yourself  you  can  give 
up  this  modern  home  life,  with  its  bad  specula- 
tion in  tiny  rooms  and  tall  rents.  Only  you 
must  be  on  your  guard,  and  decline  to  look  at 
any  plans  in  which  your  furniture  is  not  well 
placed. 

It  happens  pretty  often  that  the  innocent- 
looking  thing  known  as  a  plan  sets  a  husband 
and  wife  at  variance,  to  the  amusement  of  their 
children.  Their  quarrel  may  not  be  serious,  but 
men  may  be  glad  to  know  how  it  arises.  Your 
architect,  having  finished  his  designs,  calls  with 
them  and  explains  their  meaning  in  a  delightful 
manner.  The  plans  are  spread  out  upon  a  table, 
and  you  and  he  bend  over  them  together.  The 
architect  speaks  ;  his  words  come  trippingly;  and 
his  right  hand  is  not  less  eloquent,  for  it  travels 
over  the  plans  with  a  kind  of  rhythmic  assurance, 
stopping  here  and  there  to  give  point  to  the 
description.  All  seems  right  and  transparently 
good  and  clear. 

"  A  fool  could  understand  this,"  you  say  with 
enthusiasm. 

"  Well,  Fve  tried  to  meet  your  wishes,"  the 
architect  replies,  diplomatically. 

"Jove,  but  it's  good  !  "  you  go  on,  though 
lost  in  a  little  maze  of  lines  near  the  scullery  and 
kitchen.     Somehow  you   don't  feel  able  to  ask 


312  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

questions  after  hearing  such  a  lucid  account  of 
some  rooms  and  a  staircase  or  two.  What  in 
the  world  could  be  simpler  than  that  ?  And 
why  should  you  give  away  your  technical  inex- 
perience when  your  architect  is  so  reasonable  and 
his  elevations  are  plainly  what  you  need  ?  So 
the  architect  goes  home  in  fine  feather,  carrying 
the  approved  designs  with  him. 

At  dinner  you  repeat  to  your  wife  what  you 
remember  of  the  architect's  description,  only  to 
find  that  it  is  received  in  a  silence  filled  with 
questions  to  be  spoken.  For  an  English  house- 
wife is  a  critic  in  these  matters,  keen  and  quick, 
arriving  at  clear  judgments  while  her  husband 
talks  about  non-essentials.  It  is  not  for  nothing 
that  architects  fear  an  English  housewife.  Let 
her  see  any  home,  and  she  will  describe  it 
accurately,  noting  every  point  in  it,  both  good 
and  bad.  She  seems  to  have  an  eye  in  every 
nerve,  and  a  good  ounce  of  common  sense  in 
every  criticism.  That  is  why  your  wife  listens 
coldly,  and  then  probes  your  mind  with  questions  : 

1.  What  distance  separates  the  kitchen  from 
the  dining-room  ? 

2.  Is  the  kitchen  well  ventilated,  or  will  it 
drive  cook  to  give  notice  in  summer  ? 

3.  Is  the  hall  a  passage-way  for  servants,  or 
can  the  front  door  be  reached  without  passing 
through  the  hall  f 


■         ARCHITECTS  AND  CLIENTS     313 
4.  Did  you  note  the  thickness  of  each  wall  ? 

5.  Was  the  door  in  each  room  correctly- 
placed,  or  would  it  make  a  draught  with  the 
window — a  draught  not  to  be  escaped  in 
summer  with  the  window  open  ? 

6.  Could  dear  little  Tom  reach  the  nursery 
window  if  he  stood  on  his  rocking-horse  ?  If 
so,  will  the  window  be  guarded  ? 

7.  Is  the  painted  dado  four  feet  above  the 
nursery  floor,  or  will  it  invite  baby  to  lick  the 
pictures  ? 

8.  Does  the  bathroom  face  the  morning  sun, 
and  is  it  large  enough  to  be  convenient  ? 

9.  Are  there  quite  enough  cupboards  ? 
Many  other  questions  are  asked,  and  you  have 

never  a  word  to  answer.  There  is  one  thing 
only  to  be  done — write  for  the  plans,  and  when 
they  arrive,  do  not  place  them  on  a  table  and  ask 
your  wife  to  study  them  with  you.  To  do  that 
is  to  quarrel,  for  neither  she  nor  you  know 
enough  about  architecture  to  read  plans  easily 
and  correctly. 

Go  together  to  the  site,  taking  with  you 
plenty  of  tape  and  nails  ;  then  mark  out  the 
ground-floor  plan  as  you  would  a  tennis  court.^ 
A  scale  of  feet  is  given,  and  you  begin  with  the 
external  walls,  showing  their  thickness  by  means 

*  Your  architect  would  send  his  pupil  to  help  you,  and  this 
would  save  you  from  many  difHculties, 


314  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

of  two  lines  made  of  tape.  The  space  between 
the  lines  may  be  filled  in  with  sawdust.  When 
you  are  certain  that  these  external  walls  are 
correct,  with  openings  for  doors  and  windows, 
divide  the  interior  into  rooms  and  corridors. 
That  will  be  easy  ;  and  then  you  will  be  able 
to  walk  through  one  part  of  your  house  and 
test  the  convenience  of  the  plan  throughout. 
If  a  passage-way  is  too  narrow  you  will  notice 
it ;  if  a  room  in  shape  is  awkward  or  ungainly, 
you  will  see  the  defect  full  size ;  and  your 
architect  will  appreciate  the  practical  know- 
ledge you  have  gained. 

Plans  ought  to  be  tested  in  this  way  by  all 
clients  ;  and  it  is  quite  a  simple  thing  to  work 
out.  The  designs  give  in  little  the  shapes  which 
have  to  be  imitated  ;  a  scale  of  feet  cannot  be 
deceptive,  and  with  a  pair  of  compasses  the  full 
length  or  thickness  of  each  part  is  easy  to  ascer- 
tain. It  will  take  perhaps  three  hours  to  map 
out  the  ground  floor  plan,  and  another  three 
hours  for  the  bedroom  floor,  but  it  will  be  time 
well  spent.  To  see  rooms  in  full-sized  diagrams 
helps  you  to  decide  whether  the  furniture  will 
look  right,  and  whether  doors  will  be  happily 
placed  in  relation  to  fireplaces  and  windows  ; 
and  other  details  also,  which  laymen  are  apt  to 
pass  over  in  small  plans,  will  start  out  and  assume 
their  just  air  of  importance. 


ARCHITECTS  AND  CLIENTS     315 

This  method  of  testing  plans  before  they  are 
approved  puts  their  designer  on  his  mettle  ;  and 
it  is  to  architecture  what  proof-reading  is  to  books. 
No  author  can  see  his  work  truly  and  as  a  whole 
until  it  comes  to  him  in  page  proofs  ;  the  chapters 
then  stand  forth  like  counties  in  a  map,  each 
with  a  character  of  its  own  ;  and  many  defects, 
hitherto  unseen,  look  out  impudently  from  the 
cold,  neat  pages.  Carlyle  and  Balzac  did  much  of 
their  work  at  this  stage,  driving  the  poor  printers 
to  despair;  and  all  writers  make  corrections.  But 
architects,  somehow,  are  always  willing  to  wait 
till  their  proof-sheets  take  the  form  of  a  nearly 
finished  building,  when  revision  is  either  im- 
possible or  very  costly  ;  and  this  explains  the 
glaring  blunders  to  be  found  even  in  fine  houses 
and  in  public  works.  Far  too  much  faith  is 
given  to  the  small  plan.  The  late  Lord  Salisbury 
warned  us  against  small  maps ;  and  for  a  similar 
reason  I  have  warned  you  against  the  architect's 
little  plans,  in  which  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch 
may  represent  a  foot.  Even  when  the  scale  is 
one-eighth  of  an  inch  to  a  foot  few  architects  can 
form  in  their  mind  an  accurate  idea  of  the  work 
full  size.  A  small  scale,  like  a  picture  in  a 
thumb-nail  photograph,  gives  nothing  more 
than  a  hinted  and  dim  suggestion  of  a  large 
thing. 

Unfortunately,  these  views  have  not  the  advan- 


3i6  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

tage  of  being  old  ;  they  do  not  appear  in  any- 
book  on  domestic  architecture  ;  and  yet  they  must 
have  been  present  to  the  minds  of  all  laymen 
during  the  anxieties  that  attend  house-building. 
Those  anxieties  are  usually  followed  by  dis- 
appointment, for  people  learn  so  much  during 
the  progress  of  work,  and  see  so  many  little, 
tiresome  faults,  that  a  much  better  home  is 
suggested  by  the  one  just  finished.  "  I  don't 
like  that  effect,"  the  client  says  to  his  architect, 
"  and  I  wouldn't  repeat  it  at  any  price."  As 
a  rule  the  client  himself  is  to  blame,  because  he 
approved  the  plans  too  hurriedly,  and  neglected 
to  judge  them  enlarged  full  size  on  the  site. 

No  man  has  ever  built  for  himself  a  house 
without  marvelling  at  the  way  in  which  he 
had  previously  looked  at  architecture,  seeing  all 
without  the  least  interest  or  wish  to  be  interested. 
Very  few  persons  can  describe  their  own  street  ; 
and  many  Londoners  would  hesitate  if  you  asked 
them  whether  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  has  a  dome 
or  a  spire.  There  are  two  things  that  run 
counter  to  this  unintelligent  eyesight  ;  and  the 
better  of  the  two  is  to  build  a  house.  While  this 
work  is  going  on  your  mind  gets  wide  awake 
to  a  thousand  questions,  such  as  the  treatment 
of  doorways,  the  shape  and  size  of  windows, 
the  points  to  be  desired  in  a  good  roof;  the 
reasons  why  modern  chimney-shafts  are  so  poor 


ARCHITECTS  AND  CLIENTS     317 

and  bleak  when  compared  with  those  on  Tudor 
and  Jacobean  houses  ;  the  value  of  the  shade 
thrown  by  a  deep  cornice  carried  up  close  under 
the  eaves  ;  the  beauty  of  a  projecting  gable 
above  a  good  bay-window  filled  with  lead  lat- 
tice glazing  :  all  these  details,  and  a  great  many 
others,  grip  the  mind  as  soon  as  it  begins  to  see 
architecture  with  thought  and  discrimination. 
Then  a  long-familiar  street  in  London,  hitherto 
seen  uncritically,  stands  out  as  in  a  set  of  photo- 
graphs, a  medley  of  jumbled  styles  all  at  variance 
with  one  another,  and  showing  how  the  tastes 
of  many  private  builders  ran  wild  in  a  public 
thoroughfare,  when  they  ought  to  have  been 
orchestrated  into  harmony  under  the  guidance 
of  a  Public  Board  of  Architecture. 

Many  a  town  has  been  turned  into  a  patch- 
work of  ill-assorted  buildings  only  because  the 
most  public  and  necessary  form  of  art  is 
commonly  treated  as  a  matter  for  private 
speculation  and  for  individual  taste  and  fancy. 
It  is  true  that  architects  are  not  entirely  free, 
but  have  to  work  in  accordance  with  certain 
by-laws  and  civic  customs.  Still,  that  is  not 
the  question  at  issue  here.  Whatever  the 
restraints  under  which  architecture  is  now 
carried  on,  the  results  are  bad  far  more  often 
than  they  are  moderately  good.  No  town 
building,   therefore,  ought   to  be  put   up   until 


3i8  THE  ENGLISH  HOUSE 

the  designs  have  been  approved  by  a  Board  of 
Architecture,  maintained  by  the  public  and 
responsible  to  the  public,  this  act  of  approving 
to  consider  the  designs  in  relation  to  their  site 
and  its  surroundings. 

A  right  thing  in  a  wrong  place  means  con- 
fusion ;  and  when  a  street  in  its  architecture 
tries  to  babble  in  a  score  of  different  languages, 
many  right  things  may  be  found  in  the  wrong 
places,  so  the  confusion  may  be,  and  frequently 
is,  unlimited.  And  this  brings  in  the  last 
point  that  concerns  us  all  in  the  relation  of 
architects  with  their  clients.  There  are  two 
kinds  of  client,  one  public,  the  other  private. 
Out  of  town,  no  doubt,  the  private  client  is 
often  a  friend  to  the  best  work  that  architects 
now  do  ;  but  the  client  whom  they  need  in 
town  is  the  citizen  spirit,  a  public  opinion  alert 
and  proud,  watchful  and  educated.  "  Do  not 
think,"  says  Ruskin,  "  that  you  can  have  good 
architecture  merely  by  paying  for  it.  It  is  not 
by  subscribing  liberally  for  a  large  building  once 
in  forty  years  that  you  can  call  up  architects  and 
inspiration.  It  is  only  by  active  and  sympa- 
thetic attention  to  the  domestic  and  everyday 
work  for  each  of  you,  that  you  can  educate 
either  yourselves  to  the  feeling,  or  your  builders 
to  the  doing,  of  what  is  truly  great.  ...  It 
does  not  matter  how  many  public  buildings  you 


ARCHITECTS  AND  CLIENTS     319 

possess,  if  they  are  not  supported  by,  and  in 
harmony  with,  the  private  houses  of  the  town"; 
and  hence  it  is  chiefly  by  popular  efforts  that 
cities  must  be  adorned. 

Anything,  then,  which  has  a  tendency  to 
fix  public  attention  on  the  nation's  architec- 
ture is  a  thing  to  be  welcomed  ;  and  so  I 
have  ventured  to  speak  with  frankness  on  many 
questions  over  which  writers  glide  nervously 
lest  they  should  give  offence  to  their  architect 
friends.  They  forget  that  an  architect  counts 
for  nothing  at  all  as  compared  with  the  in- 
fluence of  his  profession  on  a  nation's  public 
and  private  life.  To  be  good  he  must  be 
excellent ;  and  excellence  in  all  art  is  a  wise 
and  brilliant  use  of  traditions  plus  something 
personal  and  something  new  and  great  in  human 
emotion. 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 


Abacus  :  The  uppermost  member  or  division  of  the  capital  of  a 
column,  immediately  under  the  architrave.  It  is  a  very  essential 
feature  in  the  Grecian  and  Roman  orders.  Characteristics  de- 
scribed, 214,  215 

Abbot's  House,  Much  Wenlock,  Salop,  an  example  of  Perpen- 
dicular Gothic  (fifteenth  century),  l6l 

Abell,  John,  carpenter  and  builder,  tempus  Charles  I.,  famous  for  his 
half-timbered  houses  in  the  Herefordshire  style,  175 

Abingdon  Abbey,  Berkshire,  a.d.  1250,  one  of  its  chimneys  described, 

98 

Acanthus,  a  plant,  the  leaves  of  which,  conventionally  treated,  form 
the  lower  portions  of  Corinthian  and  Composite  capitals,  214, 
215,  216 

Adam,  Robert  and  James  :   Architects,  of  the  time  of  George  III. 
^-^  Their  work  and  its  characteristics,  208,  244,  246-48,  249,  251, 

►       ^68 

Addy,  S.  O.,  his  book  on  "The  Evolution  of  the  English  House," 
87  ;  on  chimneys,  87;  on  glass  windows,  112  ;  on  screens,  171 ; 
on  English  barns  and  ox-houses  used  as  sleeping-places  for 
labourers,  180-81 

Adelphi  Terrace,  London,  designed  and  built  by  the  brothers 
Adam,  an  example  of  Anglo-Classic  architecture,  244,  268 

Albert  Hall,  London,  240 

Aldermaston,  Berkshire,  its  famous  staircase  contrasted  with  those 
at  Crewe  Hall,  Cheshire,  and  Burleigh,  Northants,  201 

Ale-wives,  in  London,  during  the  thirteenth  century,  their  occupa- 
tion and  its  dangers,  66,  6j 

Alfred,  King,  the  reputed  inventor  of  lanterns,  41 

Allington  Castle,  Kent,  its  ceiling  decoration,  197 

321  X 


322  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Alnwick  Castle,  windows  at,  in  Henry  III/s  reign,  114 

"  Ancient  Lights,"  unknown  in  London  during  the  Norman  period, 

65 

Ancone  :  A  term  in  Classic  architecture,  denoting  a  small  console  on 

each  side  of  a  door  to  support  an  ornamental  cornice 
Angel  Choir,  Lincoln  Cathedral,  loi 
"  Anne,  Queen  "  :  A  style  of  architecture,  popularly  so  called,  though 

it  existed  before  Queen  Anne's  time.     A  composite  style,  partly 

Gothic  and  partly  Classic,  220,  221,  236-40 
Anthemion,   a  term  given  to  the  honeysuckle  or  palmette  ornament 

of  several  kinds,  much  used  in  Grecian  and  Roman  architecture, 

whence  it  passed  into  Anglo-Classic  buildings,  219,  244 
Arabesques,  in  the  Baths  of  Titus,  how  they  influenced  Renaissance 

decoration,  219 
Archery,  its  probable  influence  on  the  use  of  glass  for  windows,  112  ; 

windows  in  castles  designed  to  keep  out  arrows,  117 
Arches  :  These  are  of  various  forms,  but  their  evolution  in  England 

may  be  summarised  thus  : 

1.  Saxon  and  Early  Norman,  usually  an  imitation  of  the 
semicircular  Roman  arch.  Some  arches  of  this  period  are 
segmental,  and  some  triangular. 

2.  Late  Norman  and  Early  English  Gothic,  pointed  or  leaf- 
shaped. 

3.  Decorated  English  Gothic,  pointed. 

4.  Perpendicular  Gothic  and  Tudor,  depressed,  the  head  of 
the  arch  becoming  flattened,  as  though  pressed  down  by  the 
weight  above  it, 

5.  Renaissance,  a  return  to  the  semicircular  Roman  arch. 
Information   concerning  arched  forms  will  be  found  in  all  the 
chapters. 

Architects,  English,  their  objection  to  suites  of  rooms  with  com- 
municating doors,  131-33  ;  their  misuse  of  Greek  architecture, 
230-31 ;  their  past  and  present  aims,  Chapter  XIV".  ;  in  relation 
to  their  clients.  Chapter  XV. 

Architrave  :  The  beam  or  lowest  division  of  an  entablature,  that 
part  which  rests  immediately  on  the  columns,  especially  in  Classic 
architecture.  Also  the  moulded  frame  above  and  on  both  sides  of 
a  door  and  a  window-opening 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  323 

Archivolt  :  The  under  curve  or  surface  of  an  arch,  from  impost  to 
impost;  the  mouldings  on  the  face  of  an  arch  resting  on  the 
impost 

Arris  :  The  sharp  edge  formed  by  the  meeting  of  two  surfaces,  as  in 
^    the  walls  of  a  tower 

Ashlar  :  Squared  stonework  in  regular  courses ;  also  hammer- wrought 
freestone  for  dressing  the  quoins  or  angles  of  a  building,  &c. 
The  term  implies  hand-labour,  in  comparison  with  rubblework 
and  rough  stone  as  brought  from  the  quarry,  80 

Aston  Hall,  Warwickshire,  a  Jacobean  mansion,  its  Long  Gallery, 
219 

AsTYLAR  :  Without  columns  or  pilasters.  A  treatment  of  fa9ades 
common  in  Italian  buildings  of  the  Renaissance,  and  introduced 
into  Anglo-Classic  work  by  Sir  Charles  Barry  (1795-1860),  228 

Atrium,  Roman,  36,  37 

Aubrey,  on  chimneys,  87;  on  glass  windows,  11 1 

Aumbries,  arched  cupboards  recessed  in  the  party-walls  of  Anglo- 
Norman  houses,  64 

Aydon  Castle,  Northumberland  (circa  1270),  fireplace  at,  91 ;  chimney 
at,  98,     See  also  the  List  of  Illustrations 

Balcony  :  A  projecting  gallery  in  front  of  a  window,  supported 
by  consoles,  brackets,  cantilevers,  or  pillars,  frequently  surrounded 
by  a  balustrade.  Much  used  in  Anglo-Classic  houses  to  give 
variety  to  their  elevations,  242 

Ball-flower  :  The  characteristic  ornament  of  Decorated  Gothic 
architecture  ;  it  is  usually  set  in  a  hollow  moulding,  and  resembles 
a  ball  placed  in  a  circular  flower,  the  petals  of  which  form  a  cup 
around  it 

Baluster  :  A  small  pillar  or  column  that  supports  a  handrail  or  a 
coping,  the  whole  being  called  a  balustrade 

Balustrade  :  A  range  of  small  balusters  supporting  a  coping  or 
cornice,  and  forming  a  parapet  or  enclosure,  as  along  the  edge  of 
a  balcony,  terrace,  bridge,  staircase,  or  the  eaves  of  a  building. 
At  Longleat  Hall,  194 

Barfreston  Church,  Kent,  circular  window  at.  Late  Norman,  55 

Barge-board  :  A  board  generally  used  on  gables  where  the  covering 
of  a  roof  extends  over  the  wall  ;  it   usually  projects  from  the 


324  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

wall,  and  either  covers  the  rafter,  that  would  otherwise  be  exposed, 
or  occupies  the  place  of  a  rafter.  The  earliest  barge-boards 
known  belong  to  the  fourteenth  century.     See  pp.  141  and  155 

Barns,  those  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  were  often  large 
cruciform  structures,  better  built  than  many  modern  churches,  176 

Barrows,  or  funeral  mounds,  circular  and  long,  in  their  relation  to 
domestic  architecture,  26,  27 

Barry,  Sir  Charles  (1795-1860),  architect,  228,  229,  232,  269 

Barry,  E.  M.,  R.A.  (1831-80),  architect  and  writer,  on  modern 
chimneys,  96  ;  on  the  architecture  of  Longleat  Hall,  193  ;  on 
staircases,  200  ;  designs  the  Temple  Chambers  on  the  Victoria 
Embankment,  London,  in  the  style  of  the  French  Renaissance 
206  ;  speaks  of  Crewe  Hall,  213  ;  his  estimate  of  the  Renaissance, 
273  ;  and  of  progress  in  building,  275 

Barton,  Isle  of  Wight,  chimney-shaft  at,  99 

Basements,  in  Anglo-Classic  houses,  226,  250,  270 

Bathrooms,  in  some  royal  houses  of  the  thirteenth  century,  103  ;  often 
badly  planned  to-day,  282  ;  should  face  the  morning  sun,  313 

Battlement  :  A  parapet  with  a  series  of  open  spaces  in  it,  through 
which  arrows  and  other  missiles  may  be  shot.  The  open  spaces, 
or  indentations,  are  embrasures,  and  the  raised  parts  merlons. 
See,  for  example,  the  illustration  of  Cowdray  House,  Sussex 

Bay,  a  unit  of  measurement  in  old-time  architecture,  30  j  the  mean- 
ings of  this  word  in  ancient  rustic  life,  164 

Bay-leaf  Garland,  a  Classic  ornament,  219.  See  also  the  Plate 
showing  a  comparison  between  Greek  and  Roman  mouldings 

Bay-windows,  late  Gothic  features,  155,  194,  205,  239 

Bedford  Square,  London,  by  the  brothers  Adam,  208,  209,  244 

Bedrooms,  modern^  often  too  small  for  their  furniture,  310  ;  their 
walls  not  thick  enough  to  give  privacy,  277,  278,  See  also  Ball, 
Bower,  Solar,  and  Ox-houses 

Beehive  Huts,  in  Ireland,  their  significance  in  the  evolution  of  houses 
from  round  to  rectangular  shapes,  27 

Belfries,  their  form  in  the  fifteenth  century,  148 

"  BfiowuLF,"  Saxon  poem,  its  description  of  life  in  a  Saxon  hall,  44-48 

Berners,  Dame  Juliana,  and  her  "  Boke  of  St.  Albans,"  3 

Bernini,  architect  of  the  Louvre,  Paris,  Sir  Christopher  Wren's 
admiration  for    his  work,  233 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  325 

BiGNOR,  in  Sussex,  Roman  villa  at,  35 

Billet  :  An  ornament  in  Norman  work,  resembling  a  billet  of  wood, 
either  round  or  square.     An  example  at  Canterbury  described,  54 
Blenheim  Pala.ce,  by  Sir  John  Vanbrugh,  built  in  1715,  227,  268 
Blore,  architectural  draughtsman^  263 
Board,  Public,  of  Architecture,  urgently  needed  in  large  towns, 

317,  318 
Bolton  Castle,  what  Leland  wrote  concerning  its  hall  and  chimney, 

85,  86 
Books,  on  the  Renaissance,  a  selection  given^  259-62      ^, 
BooTHBY  Pagnell,  LINCOLNSHIRE,  Norman  manor-house  78,  89,  91 
Boss :  A  projecting  ornament  placed  at  the  intersections  of  the  ribs 

of  ceilings,  whether  flat  or  vaulted,  and  in  other  situations.     A 

characteristic  of  Tudor  ceilings,  199.     The  term  is  also  applied  to 

the  curved   termination  of  the  weather-mouldings  of  doors  and 

windows.     Bosses  are  often  beautifully  carved 
Bower,  a  room,  described  by  Chaucer,  168  ;  a  parlour  by  day  and  a 

bedroom  at  night,  43,  169  ;  in  later  cottages,  171 
Bracket  :  A  projecting  ornament  that  carries  the  upper  members  of 

a  cornice ;  it  is  usually  enriched  with  volutes  or  scrolls  at  the  two 

ends.     See  Ancone 
Bramhall,  Cheshire,  famous  half-timbered  house,  160 
Bricks,  and  their  use  in  England,  34,  60,  118,  119,  181,  203,  240, 

244 
British    Museum,   its  Classic   style  contrasted   with   the  Gothic  of 

Westminster   Abbey,    137;   its   portico   useless  in    our   English 

climate,  225  ;    its  bulk  dwarfed  by  the  railings  in  front  of  the 

courtyard,  225 
Builders,  slow  to  recognise    the  changes  which  have   passed  over 

modern  home  life,  133  ;  their  loyalty  to  Gothic  traditions  in  old 

times,  189 ;  their  misuse  of  Gothic  to-day,  246 ;  their  dislike  for 

old  houses,  263 ;   their  bad  work  in  villas  and  flats  for  moderate 

incomes,  276-80 
Building  Acts,  their  origin  in  the  twelfth  century,  62-66 ;  renewed 

and  strengthened  in  1212,  66-68  ;  they  do  not  mention  fireplaces 

and  chimneys,  84 
Building  Methods,  Modern,  their  want  of  economy,  181  ;  inferior 

to  earlier  methods,  182 


326 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 


Buildings,  National,  ought  to  be  in  styles  which  reflect  national 
history  and  sentiment,  230,  231,  232  ;  how  they  influence  house 
architecture,  232 

Buildings,  tall,  arranged  in  narrow  streets,  their  bad  influence  on 
public  health,  104;  forming  channels  for  keen  draughts  and  for 
wind-swept  dust,  105 ;  Henry  III.  introduces  a  London  fashion 
for  tall  houses  in  narrow  streets,  104-5 

Burleigh,  Lord,  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  195 

Burleigh,  Northants,  Elizabethan  mansion,  Its  stone-vaulted  stair- 
case similar  to  some  French  examples,  201-2  ;  its  architect,  John 
Thorpe,  who  built  this  great  house  between  1575  and  1587,  202  ; 
the  exterior  work  explained,  202-6  ;  influence  of  the  French 
Renaissance  on  Thorpe,  203  ;  Burleigh  contrasted  with  Wollaton, 
in  Nottinghamshire,  206-7 

Burlington,  Lord,  publishes  Falladio's  "  Antiquities  of  Rome  ''  and 
is  criticised  by  Alexander  Pope,  151-52;  builds  a  Classic  house 
for  General  Wade,  227  ;  and  is  ridiculed  by  Lord  Chesterfield, 
228  ;  collaborates  with  Kent  to  build  the  Horse  Guards,  London, 
268 

Burrowing  Instinct,  in  primitive  architecture,  15,  18,  20,  21  ;  in 
modern  London  flats,  20  ;  in  tube  railways  underground,  21 

Burton,  Decimus  (1800-81),  builds  the  Athenaeum  Club,  Pall  Mall, 
and  the  United  Service  Club,  269 

Buttress  :  A  projecting  mass  of  masonry,  used  for  resisting  the  thrust 
of  an  arch,  or  for  ornament  and  symmetry.  The  use  of  buttresses 
not  understood  by  the  Normans,  80-81 ;  in  later  Gothic  houses 
136;  in  the  fifteenth  century,  see  the  illustration  of  the  Abbot's 
House,  Much  Wenlock,  Salop 

Cadodan  Square,  London,  with  houses  influenced  by  the  Flemish 

Renaissance,  238 
Canopies,  of  plaster,  their  mediaeval  use  to  convey  smoke  from  wood 

fires,  85-89 
Capital:  The  head  or  uppermost  member  of  a  column,  pilaster,  &c. 

It  consists  generally  of  three  parts,   abacus,  bell,  and  necking. 

The  capitals  of  Greek  and  Roman  columns  explained,  214-16 
Carpets,  come  timidly  into  fashion  between  the  reigns  of  Henry  V. 

and  Henry  VII.,  displacing  rushes  and  grasses,  109 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  327 

Carters,  Medieval,  in  their  relation  to  glass  windows,  113 
Caryatides  :  Human  female  figures  in  sculpture  used  as  columns  or 

supports.     They  are  said  to  represent  the  women  of  Caria,  who 

helped  the  Persians  against  the  Greeks,  and  were  made  slaves  as 

a  punishment 
Casements,  Movable,  set  with  panes  of  glass,  in  mediaeval  windows, 

III ;  they  did  not  pass  to  the  heir  as  part  of  the  freehold  estate, 

but  to    the    personal    representatives,    1 12 ;    modern    casement 

windows,  284 
Cash,  John,  F.R.I.B.A.,  165 
Castle   Howard,  Yorkshire,  by  Sir  John  Vanbrugh,  a.d.  1714,  a 

Classic  mansion,  223,  227,  270 
Castle    Rising,   Norfolk,  a  fortified  manor-house  of  the  Norman 

period,  72 
Castles,  and  their  relation  to  domestic  architecture,  57,  60,  69,  70, 

71,  loi,  no 
Cathedrals,  English  Gothic,  contrasted  with  St.  Paul's,  London, 

234 
Cauls,  from  new-born  calves,  used  by  Norsemen  as  a  covering  to 

windows,  ill 
Cave-dwellings,  4,  17,  18 
Ceilings,  in  Norman  times>  74 ;  in  the  fifteenth  century,  198 ;  in 

Tudor  homes,  154,  196  ;  in  Early  Renaissance  houses,  134,  197, 

198,  214  ;  in  the  Adam  style,  247 
Chacombe  Priory,  Northants,  thirteenth  century,   windows  with 

square  heads,  1 14 
Chairs,  by  Chippendale,  show  in  their  first  period  the  influence  of 

the  Louis  Quatorze  style,  257 
Chambers,  Sir  William,  in  1776,  designs  Somerset  House,  189  ;  starts 

a  mania  for  Chinese  design,  about  1760,  257 
Chamfer  :  An  arris  or  angle  which  is  slightly  pared  off  is  said  to  be 

chamfered,  and  the  term  applies  to  woodwork  as  well  as  stone* 

A  chamfer  is  smaller  than  a  splay 
Charcoal-burners,  Modern,  the  great  antiquity  of  their  cone-shaped 

hut,  22-24 
Charlton,  Wiltshire,  Jacobean  mansion,  its  Long  Gallery,  220 
'Chaucer,    his   description    of  a   widow's    cottage  in  his  "  Nonnes 
Preestes  Tale,"  168-69 


328  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Cheshire,  its  timbered  houses,  182,  291.    See  also  the  illustrations  of 

Little  Moreton  Hall,  Bramhall,  and  Lower  Garden  Hall 
Chesterfield,    Lord,    condemns    the    Classic   houses   of  his    time, 

227-28 
Chevron,  a  zigzag  moulding,  or  group  of  mouldings,  common  in 

Norman   architecture,    54.      See    the  illustrations  of  Norman 

zigzags 
Chilham  Castle,  Kent,  by  Inigo  Jones,  transitional  in  style,  267 
Chimneys  ;  See  Chapter  VI.     In  Tudor  houses,  99,  155  ;  at  Burleigh, 

Northants,  203  ;  at  Wollaton,  Nottinghamshire,  207  ;  at  Crewe 

Hall,  Jacobean,  212  ;  in  modern  houses,  96-98 
Chippendale,  250,  257 
Chiswick,   a   villa  at,  built  for  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  by  Inigo 

Jones,  started  in  England  the  useless  domestic  style  with  pedi- 
ments and  porticoes,  226,  which  lasted  in  many  houses  till  the 

times  of  Sir  Charles  Barry,  228 
Choice  of  a  style  for  modern  homes,  308 
Christine  de  Pisan,  her  influence  on  the  education  of  English  ladies 

from  the  time  of  Henry  IV.  to  those  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  3 
Classic  Architecture  :  For  its  influence  in  the  sixteenth  century  see 

Chapter  XL;  in  its  relation   to   ourselves,  Chapter  XH.  ;  some 

Classical    architects,   268-69.     ^^^  ^^^°   under  Adam,  Doorways, 

Bedford  Square,  Adelphi  Terrace,  Rustic  Work,  Orders,    Wren,  and 

Jones 
Clients,  in  relation  to  their  architects.  Chapter  XV. 
Coal,  used  by  Londoners  in  the  fifteenth  century,  95  ;  waste  of  coal 

in  modern  houses,  93,  94 
Coffers  :  Sunk  panels  formed  in  ceilings,  vaults,  or  domes 
Colchester  Castle,  Essex,  Norman  fireplace  at,  89 
CoLLiNGHAM  GARDENS,  LoNDON,  houses  at,  influenced  by  the  Flemish 

Renaissance,  238 
Colour,  in  prehistoric  times,  17;  among  the   Anglo-Saxons,  39,  44, 

45  ;  among  the  Normans,  'jd,  yj ;  in  the  thirteenth  century,  102, 

106 
Columns,  composed  of  base,  shaft,   and  capital  :  Norman,  55,  74 ; 

Early  English,  ICO ;  Classic,  214-16 
^Comfort,  domestic,  essential  to  the  progress  both  of  women  and  of 

house  architecture,  1-3  ;  unknown  in  mediaeval  life,  34 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  329 

N 

Communicating  Doors,  between  suites  of  rooms,  disliked  by  archi- 
tects, 131 ;  yet  useful  at  times  under  modern  conditions  of  life, 
132 

Composite  Order  :  One  of  the  five  orders  of  Classic  architecture 
recognised  by  Italian  writers  of  the  Renaissance.  It  is  easily 
known  by  its  capital,  where  the  volutes  of  the  Ionic  order  are 
grafted  upon  the  acanthus  leaves  of  the  Corinthian,  216 

CoMPTON  Wynyates,  WARWICKSHIRE,  a  Tudor  mansion  dating  from 
1520,  but  a  part  of  it  rebuilt  during  Queen  Anne's  reign,  154, 

155 
Congress,  a  yearly,  on  the  British  house  and  its  life,  is  necessary, 

281-82 
Conisborough  Castle,  of  the  twelfth  century,  a  fireplace  described,  90 
Console  :  A  term  in  Classic  architecture.     See  Ancone  and  Bracket 
Convention,  in  design,  145-46 

Cook-shops,  London,  during  the  thirteenth  century,  d^^  68,  84 
Coping,  the  highest  or  covering  course  of  masonry  in  a  wall,  often 

with  sloping  edges  to  carry  off  water,  141 
Corbels  :   A  term  in  Gothic  architecture  to  denote  the  blocks  of 

stone  projecting  from   a  wall,  and  supporting   the  beams  of  a 

roof,  or  some  other  weight.    They  are  often  richly  carved  and 

moulded 
Corinthian  Order  :  The  third  of  Grecian  architecture,  but  used  more 

commonly  by  the  Romans.     It  is   easily   known  by  its  capital 

enriched  with  acanthus  leaves,  214-15 
Cornice  :  In  Greek  architecture  the  crowning  or  upper  portion  of 

the  entablature.     The  term  is  used  for  any  crowning  projection 
Cornwall,  the  traditional  use  of  inner  courts  there,  mentioned  by 

Richard  Carew  in  1602,  35-36 
Corona  :  The  square  projection  on  the  upper  part  of  a  cornice  ;  it 

has  a  broad  vertical  face,  usually  quite  plain,  and  its  under  portion, 

or  soffit,  is  recessed,  so  as  to  form  a  drip,  which  keeps  the  rain 

from  running  down  the  walls 
Corridors,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  come  into  vogue,  displacing  the 

old  system  of  communicating  doors  between  suites  of  rooms,  133  ; 

they    develop    into     the   Long    Galleries    of    Elizabethan    and 

Jacobean  times,  134;  at  Hengrave  Hall,  191 
Cost  of  Building,  excessive  to-day,  5,  181 


330  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

CoTswoLD  District,  and  Its  style  of  house  architecture,  135,  138,  149, 
289,  291 ;  Cotswold  villages  and  towns,  292  ;  the  style  admirably 
useful  as  a  guide  in  modern  work,  308.  See  the  illustrations  of 
the  Rectory  at  Coin  Roger  and  the  Manor  House,  Withington 
sCoTTAGES :  For  the  evolution  of  round  huts  into  squared  booths  and 
cabins  see  Chapter  I.  ;  for  the  poor  man's  home  see  Chapter  X.  ; 
for  rustic  styles  of  house-building,  288-93 

Courts,  Inner,  a  Roman  feature  in  domestic  architecture,  35  ;  they 
survive  in  Cornwall,  according  to  Richard  Carew,  a.d.  1602, 
35-36  ;  they  reappear  at  Hengrave  Hall,  191,  and  Longleat  Hall, 
192  ;  also  at  Crewe  Hall,  213,  and  Hollcham,  227 

CovTDRAY  House,  Sussex,  beautiful  Tudor  ruins,  147 ;  its  oriel  win- 
dows, 147,  204 

Crewe  Hall,  Cheshire,  built  between  1615  and  1636 ;  its  staircase, 
200,  201  ;  its  exterior  architecture  contrasted  with  that  of 
Wollaton,  212  ;  its  use  of  the  Classic  orders,  212  ;  its  inner  court 
and  its  hall,  213 

Criticism,  Public,  essential  to  the  progress  of  modern  house-building, 

303 
Crockets,  projecting  leaves  or  bunches  of  foliage  used  in  Gothic 

architecture  to  decorate  the  angles  of  canopies,  spires,  &c.,  or  the 

sloping  edge  of  a  gable,  141 
Cromwell,  his  destruction  of  castles,  258 
Crosby  Hall,  London,  built  by  Sir  John  Crosby  between  1466  and 

1475,  159 
Cusps  :  The  ornamentation  of  the  heads  of  windows  ;  the  termina- 
tions of  Gothic  tracery,  some  trefoil,  others  quatrefoil,  &c. 

Dado  :  The  portion  of  a  pedestal  between  its  base  and  cornice.  A 
term  also  applied  to  the  lower  parts  of  a  wall  when  they  are 
decorated  separately,  as  in  genuine  old  Adam  houses,  248 

DaIs,  the  high  or  principal  table  at  the  end  of  a  hall,  at  which  the 
chief  guests  were  seated  with  their  host;  it  was  raised  above  the 
level  of  the  floor,  124,  125,  139,  196,  213 

Davie,  W.  G.,  his  architectural  photographs,  260,  263 

Dawber,  E.  Guy,  F.R.I. B. A.,  on  chimneys,  97  ;  on  timber  houses  in 
Kent  and  Sussex,  172  ;  his  books,  260;  on  windows,  283-84 

Decorated  Gothic,  a  continuation  of  Early  English,  and  sometimes 


cvMAxX(Ut    ]|A'^'^ 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  331 

called  the  Second  Pointed  style  ;  it  lasted,  approximately,  from 
1307  to  1377,  ^2  J  ^  Decorated  fireplace  illustrated,  98-99  ;  at 
Markenfield  Hall,  Yorkshire,  135.  The  characteristic  ornament 
of  this  style  is  the  ball-flower,  so  called  because  it  resembles  a 
ball  placed  in  a  circular  flower,  the  three  petals  of  which  form 
a  cup  around  it.  The  prevailing  ornament  in  Hereford  Cathedral, 
in  the  south  aisle  of  the  nave  of  Gloucester  Cathedral,  and  else- 
where, as  at  Bristol.  A  flower  resembling  this,  but  having  four 
petals,  is  sometimes  found  in  Late  Norman  work  ;  it  is  never 
used  in  long  suites,  like  the  ball-flower  in  Decorated  Gothic 

Defensive  Art  of  War,  in  feudal  times,  defective,  69,  70 

Dentils  :  Tooth-like  ornaments,  used  originally  in  the  bed-moulding 
of  Ionic  and  Corinthian  cornices.  They  are  common  in  Anglo- 
Classic  work 

Depressed  Arches — that  is,  arches  with  flattened  heads — form  a 
characteristic  of  fifteenth-century  Gothic  and  Tudor,  142,  143, 
147,  148 

Difference  in  spirit  between  Gothic  and  Classic  styles  explained, 

137-38 

Discomfort,  its  bad  effects  on  home  life  and  house  architecture,  i, 
3,  73,  277  et  seq. 

Dog-tooth  :  See  Tooth  Ornament 

Doorways,  Gothic,  139,  142,  147  ;  Classic,  209,  242,  243,  245,  271, 
272 

Doric  Order  :  The  oldest  and  simplest  of  the  three  orders  of  archi- 
tecture used  by  the  Greeks,  but  ranked  as  secondof  the  five  orders 
employed  by  the  Romans.     Its  characteristics,  214-15 

Dormer  Window  :  A  window  pierced  in  a  roof,  and  so  set  as  to  be 
vertical  while  the  roof  slopes  away  from  it.  Therefore  a  window 
in  a  sloping  roof.  In?old  days  it  usually  lighted  a  bedroom,  and 
hence  its  name.  See  the  illustration  of  the  cottages  at  Ease- 
bourne 

Double-cone  Moulding,  in  Norman  work,  54 

Drains,  open,  in  Westminster  Hall,  during  a  part  of  Henry  III.'s 
reign,  103  ;  they  are  displaced  by  a  drain  underground,  298 

Draughts,  in  Saxon  halls,  41  ;  in  thirteenth- century  houses,  no  ;  in 
modern  rooms  and  flats,  282 

Draughtsmen,  Architectural,  their  historic  value,  262-64 


332  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Dripstone,  label,  or  hood-mould,  the  termination  of  a  projecting 
moulding  in  Gothic  architecture  put  over  the  heads  of  doorways, 
windows,  archways,  &c.,  generally  for  the  purpose  of  throwing 
off  rain,  115,  135,  142,  143,  154 
DuNSTER,  in  Somersetshire,  timber  house  at,  146 
Dutch  influeAce  during  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary,  257 

Earl's  Barton,  Northants,  Saxon  tower  at,  49,  50,  51 

Early  English  Gothic  :  Grew  out  of  the  Norman  style,  and  developed 

into    the   Decorated  work  of  the  fourteenth  century.     Tooth 

ornament  and  lancet  windows  are  the  main  characteristics  of  Early 

English.     See  pp.  12,  58,  98,  100,  141,  and  Chapter  XII. 
Easebourne,  Sussex,  cottages  at,  173 

East  Basham  Hall,  Norfolk,  chimney  at,  Tudor  period,  99 
Eaves  :  The  lower  portion  of  a  roof  jutting  out  beyond  the  face  of  a 

wall 
Echinus  :  Properly  the  egg-and-tongue  ornament  originally  used  in 

the  Ionic  capital,  but  often  applied  to  the  bold  projecting  ovolo 

of  the  Doric  cap 
Edlingham  Castle  {circa  1330),  fireplace  at,  illustrated,  91 
Edward  I.,  165 
Edward  III.,  121,  129,  130 
Edward  IV.,  142,  147 
Egg-and-tongue,  a  Classic  ornament,  219.     See  also  the  Plate  giving 

a  comparison  of  Greek  and  Roman  mouldings 
Elizabethan  Architecture,  fireplaces,  92.    See  also  Chapter  XI.,  and 

the  list  of  books  in  Chapter  XIII. 
Elmes,  H.  L.    (1815-47),  builds  St.  George's   Hall,    Liverpool,   in 

imitation  of  a  Greek  building,  224 
Eltham  Palace,  its  roof  and  hall,  159 
Entablature  :  The  superstructure  which  lies  horizontally  upon  the 

columns.    It  is  divided  into  architrave,\}it  part  immediately  above 

the  column  ;  frieze^  the  central   space  ;  and  cornice,  the   upper 

mouldings  that  project.     At  Longleat  Hall,  193 
Exterior  Decoration    of  houses,   in   Norman  times,  jG  ;    in  later 

times,  sec  the  illustrations  of  timber  houses,  and  the  ornamented 

plaster  house  of  the  time  of  Charles  II. 
Exton,  in  Rutland  {circa  1350),  chimney  from,  98 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  333 

Family  Life,  the  true  architect  of  houses,  l ;  modern  houses  in  their 

relation  to  family  life,  277,  278-80 
Fan   Vault  :   A    system    of  vaulting   that  belongs   to  our  English 

Perpendicular  Gothic.     All  the  ribs  have  the  same  curve,  and 

resemble  the  framework  of  a  fan 
Fanlights,  above  Classic  doorvv^ays,  243,  244 
Farnese  Palace,  at  Rome,  influences  Sir  Charles  Barry  in  his  design 

for  the  Reform  Club,  Pall  Mall,  228 
Fergusson,    his  *'  History  of  Architecture,"  255  ;  his  love  for  the 

Middle  Ages,  299  ;    his  attack  on  modern  architects,  299  ;  his 

criticisms  overstated  and  unpractical,  300 
Fifteenth  Century,  houses  of,  131-34,  140-43,  266 
Finial:  a  knot  or  bunch  of  foliage,  or  foliated  ornament,  that  forms 

the  upper  extremity  of  a  pinnacle  in  Gothic  architecture,  or  of 

some  other  architectural  feature,  like  a  canopy  or  a  spire.    Gable- 
crests  are  sometimes  called  finials,  142 
Fires,  Great,  in  London:  a.d.  1135,  ^^  J  a-^*  ^212,  66  ;  a.d.  1666, 

232 
Firedogs,  or  andirons,  90,  125.     The  oldest  iiredogs  now  extant  are 

said  to  belong  to  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  these  have 

often  engraved  upon  their  upright  standards  the  letters  LH.S.,  as 

though   they  were   originally    made   for    monastic    or   religious 

houses.      In    the    reign   of  James  L,  and  later,  andirons   were 

sometimes  decorated  with  silver 
Fireplaces  :    See  Chapter  VL     In  the  Adam  style,  208,  249  ;   in 

modern  houses,  282-83 
Fisherton,  near  Salisbury,  round  Neolithic  pit-dwellings  at,  18,  21 
Flamboyant  Gothic,  136,  145 
Flats,  130,  133,  249,  277,  282,  310 
Flaxman,  sculptor,  246,  250 
Flemish  Renaissance,  how  it  has  influenced  some  modem  houses  in 

London,  238 
Floors,  in  Roman  villas,  35  ;  in  Norman  halls,  59  ;  in  Henry  III.'s 

time,  108  ;  their  defects  in  modern  houses  for  moderate  incomes, 

277-80 

Flutes,  in  Classic  architecture,  described,  216;  on  Norman  columns, 

55 
FoNTHiLL  Abbey,  built  by  James  Wyatt,  a.d.  1820,  224 


334  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Fourteenth  Century,  houses  of,  123-28,  133,  134-38,  139,  265 
French    Renaissance,    its   influence    on   Thorpe,  203  ;  on  modern 

architecture,  206;  on  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  233  ;  on  Chippendale 

and  his  contemporaries,  257 
Friars,  the,  and  their  work  in  England,  163 
Friesland,  Modern,  its  domestic  customs  have  much  in  common  with 

those  in  the  North  of  England  in  1577,  176-78 
Funeral  Mounds,  prehistoric,  in  their  relation  to  house  architecture, 

26,  27 
Furniture,  references  to,  59,  ']'],  92,  125,  126,  151,  166,  170,  257,  309 

Gable  :  Gothic  characteristic.  The  triangular  portion  of  a  wall 
marked  by  the  enclosing  line  of  a  roof.  Anciently  formed  with 
bent  trees  known  as  gavels,  30;  at  Nursted  Court,  Kent,  139;  at 
Great  Chalfield,  Wiltshire,  140 ;  their  history  sketched,  I41 ;  on 
Tudor  houses,  153,  160  ;  at  Crewe  Hall,  213  ;  on  houses  in  the 
so-called  Queen  Anne  style,  238,  239 ;  compared  with  Classic 
pediments,  245  ;  in  the  Cotswold  style,  291 

Gallery,  Long,  in  Elizabethan  and  Jacobean  houses ;  their  origin, 
134;  some  famous  examples  mentioned,  219-20.  See  also  the 
illustrations  of  the  Long  Galleries  at  Hatfield  and  Lanhydroc 

Gavels,  bent  trees,  or  bent  dressed  timber,  used  in  pairs  to  form  the 
arched  gable-ends  of  rustic  houses,  30,  164.  Gavels  became  a 
popular  term  for  gables 

Georgian  Architecture  :  Though  belonging,  in  the  main,  to  the 
pediment  and  portico  style  first  introduced  by  Inigo  Jones,  it 
had  yet  much  variety,  including  houses  without  porticoes. 
Compare  the  examples  illustrated  of  the  work  done  by  the 
brothers  Adam.  The  best  English  furniture  produced  during 
the  reigns  of  the  Georges  can  scarcely  be  excelled.  See 
Chapter  XIL,  particularly  the  latter  part  of  it.  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  the  popular  Renaissance  manner  known  as 
"Queen  Anne"  belonged  to  the  eighteenth  century,  and  was 
active  during  the  reigns  of  the  Georges,  so  that  the  porticoed 
and  pedimented  style  must  not  blind  us  to  the  merits  of  other 
Georgian  work 

Gibbons,  Grinling,  his  woodcarving  too  realistic^  145 

Glass,  its  use  in  England,  80,  no,  in,  113,  146 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  335 

Glassworkers,  English  and  foreign,  1 1 3,  114 

Glastonbury,  near,  the  marsh-village,  18,  23,  27,  28  ;  beautiful  old 

inn  at,  147 
GowER  Street,  London,  an  example  of  routine  Classic  architecture, 

207,  208,  243,  245 
GozzARDiNi,    Betisia,   an    Italian    lady   of  the    thirteenth  century, 

starts  the  higher  education  of  women,  influencing  England,  3 
Great  Chalfield,  Wiltshire,  manor-house  of  the  fifteenth  century, 

135,  140,  142;  ceiling  in  the  Great  Hall,  198 
Greek  Architecture,  7,  214-17  ;  copied  by  English  architects,  224, 

229  ;  this  Anglo-Greek  work  condemned  by  the  late  J.  J.  Steven- 
son, 230-31 
Green,  this  colour  much  used  by  Henry  III.  in  his  room  decorations, 

102 
Greenwich  Hospital,  the  two  blocks  furthest  from  the  river  are  by 

Wren,  234  ;  the  river  fa9ade,  by  Webb,  a  pupil  of  Inigo  Jones, 

268 
Grosseteste,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Durham,   1235,  opposes  innovations 

in  family  life,  121-22 
Guilloche,  a  Classic  ornament  in  the  form  of  two  or  more  bands 

or  strings  twisted  over  each  other  in  a  continued  series,  leaving 

circular  openings  which  are  filled  with  round  ornaments,  219. 

See  also  the  Plate  giving  a  comparison   of  Greek  and  Roman 

mouldings 
Gutt^,  small  cones  attached  to  the  lower  part  of  the  triglyphs,  and 

also  to  the  lower  faces  of  the  mutules,  in  a  Doric  entablature, 

and  said  to  represent  in  stone  the  rain-drops  which  gathered 

under  the  wooden  cornices  of  earlier  Greek  temples,  218 
Gutters,  their  use  in  London  in  the  twelfth  century,  63  ;  an  open 

gutter  in   Westminster  Hall,  a.d.  1261,  is  done  away  with  by 

Henry  HI.,  298 

Half-timbered  Houses,  consisting  of  a  framework  formed  of  wooden 

posts,  and  the  interstices  filled  with  brick  or  with  plaster :  See 

Timber 
Hall  :  The  history  of  this  room  is  virtually   the  history  of  the 

English  house  plan.     Information  concerning  it  is  given  in  all 

the  chapters 


336  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Hammer-beam  Roof  :  This  kind  of  roof  belongs  to  late  Gothic  tim< 

and  has  no  direct  tie.     The  ends  of  hammer-beams   are  oftei 

ornamented  with  heads,  shields,  or  foliage,  and  sometimes  with 

figures,  as  in  Westminster  Hall,  or  with  pendants,  as  in  the  hall 

at  Eltham  Palace,  illustrated  p.  158 
Hampton    Court,    149;    the    Great  Hall,   built   by  Henry  VIH. 

157-58 
Hardwick  Hall  (a.d.  1590-97),    its  Long  Gallery,  220;    its  large 

windows,  283 
Harrison,  in   the  year  1577,  wrote  his  book  on   England,  177,  and 

gave  useful  information  on  houses,  178 
Hatfield  House,  dating  from  161 1,  its  Long  Gallery,  217 
Hearne,  Thomas,  topographical  painter  in  water-colour,  263 
Hengrave  Hall,  Suffolk  (a.d.  1538),  190-91 
Henry  IH.  :  See  Chapter  VIL 
Henry  VHL,  147,  149,  187-88 
Herefordshire  Timber  Houses,  175,  182 
Hever  Castle,  Kent,  its  ceilings,  197 
Hip-knobs  :  A  finial,  or  other  ornament,  at  the  intersection  of  the 

hip  rafters   and   the   ridge.       This  term  is  sometimes   used   to 

denote  gable-crests,  141-42 
Hoards,  on  mediaeval  castles,  71-72 

HoLKHAM  Hall,  Norfolk,  designed  by  W.  Kent  in  1730,  226-27 
Holland  House,  Kensington,  by  John  Thorpe,  1607,  202 
Honeysuckle  Ornament,  the  Greek  anthemion,  219,  244 
Horizontalism,  the  main  characteristic  of  Classic  architecture,  137 ; 

but  it  appeared  also  in  English  Gothic,  as  at  Markenfield  Hall, 

137  ;  and  in  Tudor  work,  149 
Hospitals,  mediaeval,  167 

House  Architecture,  its  slow  development,  i,  296 
House,  English,  and  its  periods,  11,  12 

Iffley  Church,  Oxfordshire,  Norman  period,  55 

Imitation,  by  men,  is  like  history,  a  collector  of  known  things  and 

an  artist  in  their  use  and  interpretation,  19 
Impost  :  The  member,  usually  formed  of  mouldings,  on  which  an 

arch  immediately  rests 
Inns  of  Court,  their  origin,  68 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  337 

Interior  Decoration,  Norman,  59,  'jd  ;  in  the  thirteenth  century, 

102,  106,  107,  109,  no  ;  in  Tudor  times,  153-54,  156,  157.     See 

also  Chapters  XI.  and  XII. 
Ionic  Order,  one  of  the  three  Greek  orders  of  architecture,  and  one 

of  the  five  Roman  orders,  easily  known  by  its  capital  with  spiral 

volutes  or  curls  of  stone,  214,  215 
Irish,  Ancient,  and  their  round  houses,  23 
Italy,  and  the  higher  education  of  women,  3.     See  also  the  chapters 

on  the  Renaissance 

Jacobean  Long  Galleries,  134.     See  also  Chapter  XI. 

Jambs  :  The  sides  of  the  openings  of  doors  and  windows.     The  part 

outside  the  window-frame  is  called  the  reveal 
John  of  Padua,  an  Italian  architect  in  England,  his  life,  188-89 ; 

his  reputed  work  at  Longleat  Hall,  192-94 
Jones,  Inigo,  226,  255,  256,  267,  268 

Kedlestone  Hall,  by  the  brothers  Adam,  270 

Kent,  timber  houses,  182 

Kent,  W.,  architect,  designs  Holkham  Hall,  Norfolk,  in  1730,  226 

Kerr,  his  book  on  "  The  English  Gentleman's  House,"  191,  192 

Kew  Palace,  built  in  the  so-called  Queen  Anne  style,  239 

Keystone  :  The  central  stone  of  an  arch 

King  William's  Palace,  Hampton  Court,  234 

King-post:  A  beam  that  extends  from  the  ridge  of  a  roof  to  support 

a  tie-beam  in  the  centre 
Kingsland,  Herefordshire,  cottages  at,  174 
Kitchen,  the,  and  its  history,  39,  127,  128,  312 
Kitson,  Sir  Thomas,  builds  Hengrave  Hall,  Norfolk,  in  1538,  190 

L'Art  Nouveau,  307 

Labourers,  176,  180,  181 

Lake-dwellings,  4,  15 

Lancet  Arch  :  A  sharp-pointed  arch  that  resembles  a  lancet,  and 

that  belongs  as  a  rule  to  Early  English  Gothic — />.,  the  thirteenth 

century 
Landlords,   their   influence   on    house   architecture,    242-43,    281, 

310 

Y 


338  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Lanhydroc,  Cornwall,  and  its  Long  Gallery,  134.     See  also  the 

illustration 
Layer  Marney,  Essex,  built  in  1530,  its  good  ceilings,  197 
Laymen,  in  their  relation  to  house  architecture,  230,  231^  235,  276 
Lead,  as  used  in  architecture,  38,  40,  ^'j^  75,  118 
Leaf-and-dart,  a  Classic  ornament,  219.     See  the  illustration 
Leland,    his   remarks   on    Bolton    Castle,    quoted    and    explained;, 

85-86 
Lepers,  Medi-kval,  and  their  hospitals,  83,  167 
Levens,  Westmoreland,  its  fireplace,  93 
LiGH,  Valentin,  describes  how  the  old  measure  was  ascertained  for 

a  rood  of  land,  165 
Linen  Pattern,  a  common   design  on  Tudor  wainscots,  156.     See 

also  the  illustration  of  Thame  Park,  Oxfordshire 
Lintel  :  The  piece  of  timber  or  stone  that  covers  an  opening  and 

supports  a  weight  above  it 
Little  Wenham   Hall,  dating  from   1281,   117-20.     See   also   the 

illustrations 
London,  5,  61,  83,  94,  103,  104,  186,  207,  208,  232,  235,  240,  241,  245, 

246,  293,  317 
Long  Galleries,  134,  219 
Longleat  Hall,  Wiltshire,  attributed  to  John  of  Padua,  189,  192, 

193,  194 
Louis  Quatorze,  effect  of  this  style  in  England,  257 

Manor-houses,  ioi,  138,  142 

Margate  :  Near  this  town   are  "  Queen  Anne "  houses  built  with 

grey  flints  and  red  bricks,  239 
Markenfield  Hall,  Yorkshire  (a.d.  13 10),  134,  135,  136-37 
Marlborough  House,  Pall  Mall,  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  234 
Marsh -dwellings,  4,  15,  23 
Masons,  their  work  in  English  rural  places  long  ago,  288;    could 

design  admirably,  302 
Methods,  modern  architectural,  293 
Middlemen,  5,  182 
Meitzen,  Professor,  on  modern  Frisian  and  Saxon  farms,  177,  178, 

179,  180  ;   the  relation  of  this  to  old  English  country  life,  177, 

178,  180 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  339 

Military  Architecture  in  its  relation  to  domestic  needs,  68,  70-72 

Minstrels*  Gallery,  124,  125,  213 

Mixed  Styles,  partly  Gothic,  partly  Classic,  235,  241,  256.     See  also 

Elizabetha?i,  Jacobean^  Queen  Anne 
MoDiLLioNS  :  Projecting  brackets  in  a  Corinthian  cornice 
Montacute,  Somersetshire,  its  Elizabethan  Long  Gallery,  220 
MoRETON  Hall,  Little,  Cheshire  (a.d.  1559),  159-60 
Morris,   William,   and  his  delight   in  pattern,   145  ;  a  believer  in 

Gothic  art,  258 
Mud,  as  a  plaster  for  walls,  18 
MuLLiONS,  Gothic   features,  upright    bars  to  divide  windows  into 

different  numbers  of  lights,  these  being  usually  glazed  in  leaded 

panes,  146,  147,  154,  194,  204.     Note  their  use  in  the  transitional 

styles,  as  at  Longleat  Hall  and  Crewe  Hall 
MuTULES :  Projecting  inclined  blocks  in  a  Greek  Doric  cornice,  and 

supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  ends  of  wooden  rafters 

Nash,  Joseph,  arcl>itectural  draughtsman  and  author  of  "  The  Man- 
sions of  England  in  the  Olden  Time,"  92,  134,  155,  201,  202,  263 

Nash,  architect,  of  the  Regency,  introduced  the  age  of  stucco,  built 
Regent  Street,  laid  out  Regent's  Park  into  blocks  of  Classic 
houses,  and  designed  Buckingham  Palace,  afterwards  altered  by 
Blore,  269 

National  Life,  in  its  relation  to  architecture,  i,  6,  296,  319;  Sir 
Christopher  Wren  gave  insufficient  thought  to  this  matter  after 
the  Great  Fire  of  London,  23-2-33 ;  want  of  national  feeling  in 
Renaissance  houses  from  the  seventeenth  century  to  the  nine- 
teenth, 221  et  se^,;  Alexander  Pope  noticed  this  fact,  151-52; 
modern  improvement  in  this  respect,  223,  251 ;  national  criticism 
needed,  317-19 

Nave  :  During  the  Middle  Ages,  in  England,  shippons  and  barns,  like 
halls,  were  often  divided  by  columns  or  pillars  into  a  nave 
flanked  by  aisles,  176;  this  may  be  found  also  in  modern  home- 
steads in  Friesland  and  Saxony,  177  ei  seq. 

Nequam,  or  Necham,  in  the  twelfth  century,  wrote  about  con- 
temporary houses,  74,  75,  106.  He  may  be  the  "  mysterious 
schoolmaster  of  St.  Albans"  concerning  whom  the  late  Mr. 
William  Blades  wrote  in  a  puzzled  way 


340  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Neolithic  pit-dwellings,  4,    18,  21 ;   two   Neolithic    characteristics 

have  come  down  to  our  time,  25  ;  funeral  mounds  or  barrows,  26 
Nesfield,  W.  E.,  about  thirty  years  ago,  helps  to  revive  the  English 

Renaissance  style  known  popularly  as  "  Queen  Anne,"  237 
Newel  :  The  central  shaft  around  which   the  steps  of  a   circular 

staircase  wind  ;  also  the  post  in  which  a  handrail  is  framed,  119, 

200 
NoGGiNG,  a  term  in  building,  explained,  185 
Norman  Style,  or  English  Romanesque,  Chapters  IV.  and  V. 
NoRTHBOROUGH,     NORTHUMBERLAND,     example    of    a    chimney    in 

Decorated  Gothic,  98 
NuRSTED   Court,   Kent,    fourteenth    century,    134,    139.     See    the 

illustration 

Oak,  its  use  in  timber  houses,  144,  150,  152,  160,  168,  172,  176,  184, 

192,  200,  304 ;  it  always  shrinks,  however  well  seasoned,  185 
Oakham  Castle,  the  hall  of,  78,  79.     See  also  the  illustrations 
Ogee  :  A  moulding  formed  by  a  hollow  and  a  round  combined,  the 
section  of  which  is  the  form  of  the  letter  S,  with  the  convex  part 
above  ;  cyma  reverse.     An  ogee  arch  is  a  pointed  arch,  each  of 
the  sides  of  which  has  the  curve  of  an  ogee — that  is,  has  a  reversed 
curve  near  the  apex. 
Orders,  the  Classic,  of  architecture,  7,  8,  193,  209,  214-15 
Oriel  :  A  window  corbelled  from   the  face  of  a  wall  by  means  of 
projecting  stones.     It  is  a  Gothic  feature,  and  a  kind  of  bay- 
window.     The  term  oriel  was  applied  in  the  Middle  Ages  to  a 
gallery  for  minstrels,  and  to  a  recessed  apartment  next  the  hall 
where  certain  persons  used  to  dine  ;  hence  a  bay-window  in  this 
recess  may  have  taken  the  name  given  to  the  recess  itself.     Oriels 
are   mentioned   on  pp.   115,   140  (at  Great  Chalfield),   147  (at 
Cowdray  House,  Sussex),  153  (at  Saffron  Walden,  Essex).     See 
also  the  illustrations  of  these  houses,  and  refer  to  the  facts  con- 
cerning bay-windows  on  p.  155 
Ornament  :  Certain  forms  of  ornament  are  particularly  useful  to  any 
layman  who  desires  to  recognise   styles  in  architecture.      See 
under  Zigzags,  Tooth  Ornament,  Ball-flower,  Linen  Pattern,  Adam  ; 
and  a  plate  is  given  of  Greek  and  Roman  mouldings  used  in 
Anglo-Classic  houses  and  public  buildings 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  341 

OxBURGH  Hall,  Norfolk,  of  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.,  142,  143,  192 
Ox-houses,    in    Yorkshire,  used   as    bedrooms  during  the  sixteenth 
century,  180-81 

Painting,  Decorative,  preljistoric  in  origin,  15,  17 
Palladio,  Andrea,  Italian  architect  (1518-80),  his  influence  during 
the  revival  of  Classic  styles,  148,  149,  226.  English  Classic  was 
mainly  Palladian  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
while  French  Classic  drew  its  inspiration  chiefly  from  Vignola  ; 
and  this  other  influence  was  felt  by  Thorpe  and  Sir  Christopher 
Wren,  both  of  whom  were  familiar  with  Franco-Italian  archi- 
tecture 
Pandolfini  Palace,  Florence,  influenced  Sir  Charles  Barry  in  his 

design  for  the  Travellers'  Club,  Pall  Mali,  228 
Panels  and  iPanelling,  in  Henry  III.'s  time,  106,  107,  109 ;  at 
Lanhydroc,  Cornwall,  134 ;  at  Thame  Park,  Oxfordshire,  153  ; 
other  Tudor  wainscots,  156 ;  in  Elizabethan  halls,  196  ;  at  Crewe 
Hall,  214  ;  in  so-called  "  Queen  Anne  "  houses,  240 ;  dados  of 
white  panelling  used  in  Adam  rooms,  248 
Parapets,  the  upper  part  of  a  wall  above  a  roof,  often  battlemented, 

76,  117,  137,  138,  140,  141,  142,  147,  148 
Pargetting  :  A  kind  of  decorative  plasterwork  in  raised  ornamental 
figures,  formerly  used  in  the  decoration  of  houses  both  inside  and 
outside.    See  p.  154  (Thame  Park,  Oxfordshire),  and  the  illustra- 
tion of  the  plaster  house  built  during  Charles  II.'s  reign 
Paris,  the  influence  of,  on  Henry  III.,  104;  on  John  Thorpe,  203; 
on  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  233  ;  on  art  during  the  early  times  of 
Chippendale,  257 
Parliament,  Houses  of,  built  by  Sir  Charles  Barry  in  the  Perpen- 
dicular style,  228 
Party-walls,  between  houses,  their  origin,  63,  65 
Passages,  in  houses  and  flats,  131-33 
Patriotism,  in  architecture,  230-32 

Pediment  :  In  Classic  architecture  the  triangular  termination  of  the 
roof  of  a  temple ;  much  used  in  Anglo-Classic  houses ;  see  the 
illustration  of  Bedford  Square.     In  Gothic  buildings  a  pediment 
is  called  a  gable 
Pediment  and  Portico  Style,  226,  228,  245 


342  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Pendants,  hanging  ornaments  on  roofs,  ceilings,  &c.,  much  used  in 
the  later  styles  of  Gothic,  and  in  the  transitional  work  known  as 
Elizabethan  and  Jacobean,  141,  199,  214 

Pennethorne,  Sir  James,  architect,  189,  269 

Penshurst,  Kent,  the  hall,  124,  125;  the  rest  of  the  building 
belongs  to  the  Elizabethan  times,  266 

Periods,  of  the  English  house,  11,  12;  of  arched  styles,  12,  13;  ot 
the  Renaissance,  258,  259 

Perpendicular  style  of  Gothic,  140-43,  144-49 

Pilaster,  an  anta  or  a  square  pillar,  projecting  about  one-sixth  of 
its  breadth  from  a  wall,  and  of  the  same  proportion  as  the  order 
with  which  it  is  used,  193,  217,  244 

PiLTON,  Somersetshire  :  A  famous  barn  existed  there,  176 

Piscina,  a  niche  near  the  altar  in  a  church,  containing  a  small  basin 
for  rinsing  altar  vessels,  119 

Pit-dwellings,  Neolithic,  4,  18,  20,  21,  22 

Plan  :  The  representation  of  a  building  to  show  the  general  distri- 
bution of  its  parts  in  horizontal  sections.  References  to  planning, 
39>  73,  "O,  "6,  118,  120,  121,  128,  129,  131,  154,  172,  192,  196, 
227,  309,  311,  313,  314 

Plaster,  the  use  of  it  in  house  architecture,  18,  59,  68, 134,  196, 
197-99,  214.     See  under  Ceilings  and  Pargetting 

Poor,  halls  of  the,  Chapter  X. 

Pope,  Alexander,  ridicules  the  Classic  mansions  of  his  time,  151, 
152 

Porch,  42,  45,  75,  124,  171 

Portico  :  The  space  enclosed  within  columns,  and  forming  a  covered 
walk.  It  is  a  useful  architectural  feature  in  warm  climates,  but 
in  England  it  is  out  of  place,  darkening  rooms  on  the  ground 
floor.  Introduced  into  England  by  Inigo  Jones,  226  ;  used 
during  the  Regency  in  imitations  of  Greek  buildings,  231  ;  Sir 
Charles  Barry  abandons  the  use  of  porticoes,  228,  setting  a  good 
example  which  is  followed  by  Sir  James  Pennethorne  (1801-71), 
269.  Park  Crescent,  London,  is  an  example  of  porticoed  town 
houses 

Portman  Square,  London,  243 

Primitive  Architecture  :  See  Chapter  I. 

Primitive  Man  :  Sec  Chapter  I. 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  343 

\ 

Privacy,  in  home  life,  i,  122,  126,  131 ;  want  of  privacy  in  modern 

houses  for  moderate  incomes,  277,  278 
PuGiN,  A.  W.  N.  (1812-52),  and  the  Gothic  Revival,  258 
Puritanism,  in  relation  to  the  Renaissance,  254,  255 

Queen  Anne  Style,  so  called,  140,  236,  237,  238-40 
Quoins,  a  term  generally  applied  to  the  corner-stones  at  the  angles 
of  buildings,  and  thence  to  the  angles  themselves,  80 

Rectangle,  in  house-building.  As  the  earliest  houses  were  round,  the 
evolution  from  circular  forms  to  rectangles  has  great  interest,  28, 
29,  30,  31  ;  long  chambered  barrows  or  funeral  mounds,  as  repre- 
senting possible  types  of  prehistoric  houses,  27  ;  the  Irish  beehive 
houses,  27  ;  men  of  science  now  ask  us  to  go  back  to  oval  and 
round  rooms,  31,  32 

Reform  Club,  Pall  Mall,  228 

Regent  Street,  London,  225 

Renaissance  in  England  :  See  Chapters  XL,  XII,  Xllt. 

Revival,  Gothic,  of  the  nineteenth  century,  228,  258 

Revival  of  the  Classic  styles :  See  chapters  on  the  Renaissance 

RiccARDi,  Palazzo,  Florence,  the  astylar  treatment  of  its  design, 
228 

Robinson,  G.  T.,  F.S.A.,  the  late,  condemns  certain  features  in  the 
Adam  style  of  decoration,  247 

Rochester  Castle,  Kent,  dating  from  11 30  ;  a  fireplace  at,  described 
and  illustrated,  90 

Rogers,  Thorold,  on  the  uncleanness  of  mediaeval  villages,  4  ;  on 
peasant  cottages  of  the  thirteenth  century,  88,  165,  166 

Roman  Architecture,  7,  8,  34,  35,  36,  37,  38  ;  its  revival,  see  under 
Renaissance 

Roofs,  28,  43,  67,  75,  123,  139, 141,  160,  148,  196,  203,  237 

Rooms,*?;/  suite,  131-33 

Roses,  Wars  of  the,  their  effect  as  a  forerunner  of  the  Renaissance, 
252 

Round  :  The  history  of  round  orms  in  architecture,  see  Chapter  I. ; 
round  and  oval  rooms  of  the  eighteenth  century,  270-71 

Row,  Butchers',  at  Shrewsbury,  an  example  of  fifteenth-century 
work,  like  the  Rows  at  Weobley,  Herefordshire,  183 


344  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Royal  Institute  of  British  Architects,  280-81 

*'  Rubbers,"  soft  and  granular  bricks  used  in  the  so-called  Queen  Anne 
style,  240 

RusKiN,  on  roofs,  160;  a  believer  in  Gothic  traditions,  258  ;  on  the 
beauty  of  a  pointed  arch,  285  ;  on  the  charm  and  utility  of  bay- 
windows,  286  ;  other  windows,  287  ;  not  always  a  safe  guide  in 
house  architecture,  287 

Rustic  Styles  of  English  house-building,  190,  288,  289 

Rusticated  Columns,  described,  272 

Rustication,  or  rustic  work,  a  method  of  forming  stonework  with 
recessed  joints,  used  for  the  most  part  in  Renaissance  Classic 
architecture,  271-72 


Saffron  Walden,  Essex,  a  Tudor  hospital   at,   153.     See  also  the 

illustration 
Saint  George's  Hall,  Liverpool,  an  imitation  ot  Greek  architecture, 

217,  224-25 
Saint  John's   College,  Oxford,  the  Quadrangle,  by   Inigo  Jones, 

267 
Saint  Mary's  Guild,  Lincoln,  as  drawn  by  William  Twopeny,  81, 

82 
Saint  Paul's  Cathedral,  London,  destroyed  by  fire  in  1135,  61  ; 

burnt  down  in    1666,  and  rebuilt  by  Wren  in  a  Classic  style, 

232-33  ;  this  style  contrasted  with  English  Gothic  churches,  234 ; 

Wren's  work  was  left  unfinished,  like  that  of  Inigo  Jones  at 

Whitehall,  255 
Saint  Pancras  Church,  London,  an  imitation  of  Greek  architecture, 

217,  225 
Sanitation,  31,  32,  33,  65,  105-6,  282 
Saxon  Architecture  :   See  Chapters  II.  and  III. 
Saxony,  Modern,  its  farm  life  resembles  that  in  England  long  ago, 

176-80 
Science,   Modern,  supports  the  ancient    belief  in  round  and  oval 

rooms,  31,  32 
Screens,  123,  124,  125,  170,  171,  196,  213 
Servants,  in  their  relation  to  house  architecture,  123,  127,  128,  130, 

226 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  345 

Shaw,  R.  Norman,  R.A.,  a  master  in  the  grouping  of  chimneys,  98  ; 
his  great  and  useful  influence,  237 

Sheraton,  250 

Sherborne  Abbey,  Dorset  (circa  1470),  a  fireplace  at,  91 

Shingles,  for  roofs,  39,  75 

Shippons,  176 

Shropshire,  its  timber  houses,  182 

Shute,  John,  in  1563,  writes  the  first  English  book  on  the  revived 
Classic  styles,  254 

SiLVERWORK,  by  the  brothers  Adam,  248 

Sixteenth  Century  :  See  Chapter  XI. 

Skellig  Michael,  Ireland,  its  beehive  houses,  27 

Slums,  163 

Smithson,  R.,  architect  of  Wollaton,  206-10 

Smoke,  from  wood  and  peat  fires,  useful  in  mediseval  times,  88,  89, 
179 

Solar,  a  room  in  ancient  houses,  63,  Jj,  84,  116,  139 

Somerset  House,  its  Classic  style  contrasted  with  Gothic,  137; 
designed  by  Sir  William  Chambers  and  finished  by  Sir  James 
Pennethorne,  189 

SoMPTiNG  Church,  Sussex,  its  Saxon  tower,  50;  its  capitals,  51 

Spandrel  :  The  irregular  triangular  space  between  the  curve  of  an 
arch  and  the  square  enclosing  it ;  spandrels  are  common  features 
in  Late  Perpendicular  work,  148 

Sparrow,  Bishop,  of  the  time  of  Charles  II.,  builds  himself  a  house 
in  ornamented  plaster,  198 

Speke  Hall,  Lancashire,  Elizabethan  timber  house,  92 

Staircase,  103,  119,  125,  199,  200-2,     Three  illustrations  -* 

Step-gables,  140,  143.  Known  in  Scotland  as  corbie-steps,  or 
crow-steps  ;  they  are  common  in  Flanders,  Holland,  and 
Germany 

Stevenson,  J.  J.,  the  late,  architect,  on  Saxon  architecture,  38-40  ;  on 
Perpendicular  Gothic,  149 ;  on  the  influence  of  the  French 
Renaissance  in  England  during  the  third  quarter  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  206 ;  on  the  "  Oueen  Anne  "  style,  so  called^ 
238 ;  on  English  copies  of  Greek  buildings,  230 ;  on  tradition 
in  architecture,  276;  opposes  Mr.  Fergusson  in  his  attack  on 
architects,  301 

z 


346  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

Stokesay  Castle,  Salop,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  114,  115,  116 

Stone,  early  use  of  this  material,  38,  60,  61,  63,  6^,  66,  83 

Stoves,  37 

Stuart  Staircase  at  Crewe  Hall,  201 

Stucco  :  Plaster  of  any  kind  used  as  a  coating  for  walls;  above  all,  a 

plaster  composed  of  lime  or  gypsum  with   sand  and  pounded 

marble,  247,  272 
Styles,   in   architecture  :   See   under  Saxon,  Norman,  Ear/y  English, 

Decorated  Gothic,  Sec.  &c. 

Tapestry,  45,  76 

Tenia  :  The  band  or  fillet  forming  the  upper  member  of  the  Doric 

architrave 
Terra-cotta  :    Earth    burnt   or   baked    and    formed   into   moulds, 

to    be    used   ornamentally,   or    constructionally,   as    at    Sutton 

Place,    near   Guildford.      As    employed    in    the   Albert    Hall, 

London,  240 
Thame  Park,  Oxfordshire,  Tudor,  153,  196 
Thirteenth  Century  :  See  Chapter  VII. 
Thorpe,  John,  architect  of  Burleigh,  Northants,  202-6,  210 
Tiles,  60,  67,  7^,  125 
Timber,  in  domestic  buildings,  57,  58,  59,  66,  67,  68,  83,  128,  141, 

175,  182,  183-84 
Tooth  Ornament,  a  marked  characteristic  of  Early  English  Gothic, 

54,  79,  100.     Known  also  as  dog-tooth 
ToRRiGiANO,  his  tomb  for  Henry  VII.,  253 
Tower,  70,  102 
Transom,  a  Gothic  feature  in  windows  consisting  of  a  horizontal 

division  or  cross-bar,  114,  139,  147,  154 
Travellers'  Club,  Pall  Mall,  London,  228 
Trefoils,  a  term  applied  to  the  distribution  of  this  ornament  {trois 

feuilles — three  leaves)  in  Gothic  tracery,  114 
Triglyphs,  described,  216,  217 
Tudor  Architecture,  99,  138,  142,  161,  187,  197,  211.      The  Tudor 

flower  is  an  ornament  of  the  Perpendicular  style 
Tuscan  Order,  in  Classic  architecture,  216 
'Twelfth  Century  :  See  Chapter  V. 
Twopeny,  William,  architectural  draughtsman,  198,  261,  263 


INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY  347 

Underground  Houses  :  See  Pit-divellings 

Vanbrugh,  Sir  John,  architect,  223,  227 

Venus  of  Brassempouy,  an  example  of  prehistoric  sculpture,  17 

Vertical  Lines  :   They  predominate  in  Gothic  architecture,  while 

in  Classic  styles  the  horizontal  lines  rule  over  the  composition, 

137-38 
ViGNOLA,  Italian  architect  of  the  Renaissance,  his  influence,  194, 

203,  233 
Villa,  Roman,  35 
Villages,  English,  177,  289,  292 
Volutes  :  The  'scrolls  or  spirals  in  Ionic  and  Composite  capitals, 

resembling  curls  of  stone,  214,  215,  216 

Wade,  General,  story  of,  and  Lord  Chesterfield,  227-28 

Wainscot,  106,  107,  109,  134,  153,  156,  196,  214 

Wall  Decoration,  of  prehistoric  origin,  15 

Walls,  usually  not  well  built  in  modern  houses  for  moderate  incomes, 

277-80 
Walpole,  Horace,  and  the  Gothic  Revival,  223,  258 
Warwickshire,  183 
Wedgwood,  250 
Wells,  Medijeval,  166 
Weobley,  Herefordshire,  175,  183 
Westminster  Abbey,  137,  253 
Wheel-window,  known  also  as  rose-window :    A  circular  window 

with  mullions  that  converge  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel,  123 
Whitehall,  and  Inigo  Jones,  255-56 
WiLKiNS,  William,  architect,  225 
Window  Tracery,  136 
Window-sills,  115 
Windows,  43,  69,  75,  78,  79,  80,  100,  in,  112,  114,  118,  123,  124, 

125,  135,  146,  154,  204,  207,  209,  231,  240,  241,  242-43,  244,  271, 

282,  284 
Windsor  Castle,  224 
WoLLATON,  Nottingham,  by  R.  Smithson,  architect,  dating  from  1580, 

206-9,  212,  218 


348  INDEX  AND  GLOSSARY 

WoLSEY,  Cardinal,  did  not  build  the  Great  Hall  at  Hampton  Court, 

157 
Women,  their  influence  in  house  architecture,  1-4,  312,  313 
Wood,  its  use  in  house-building,  see  under  Timber 
Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  151,  195,  232-34 
Wyatt,  James,  architect,  and  the  Gothic  Revival,  224 
Wyatville,  Sir  Jeffrey,  transforms  Windsor  Castle,  224 


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